Gotta Love the Natives

During the times of colonization, Brazil became a land of adventures and money for the Portuguese people, but success was not always that easy to find. As many explorers and settlers moved into these new forested lands, few were seen again, as many met with great misfortune with the native tribes already living there. Throughout this period of colonization, interactions with the native peoples often defined the successes and failures of the settling populations, and were persistent throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

In April 22, 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral, while on a long journey to find a new trade route to the lush and resourceful lands of India, discovered a great new land filled with forests of dyed brazilwood and uncultured native peoples. But even with the disappointment of not succeeding, Cabral and his crew traded goods for the native’s brazilwood and some traditional clothing. Before leaving, he even chose to leave behind two outcasts that would intermarry with the native people. Pedro Cabral and his remaining fleet then named that place “Porto Seguro” (1) and returned to Portugal to tell of his discovery. Little did he know, leaving behind those two outcasts behind would become one of the biggest contributions towards beneficial relations between future settlers and the native people. Out of the twelve captaincies, only two succeeded, Pernambaco and Sao Vincente.

Sao Vincente, under the control of Sousa, succeeded because of a marriage between a Portuguese castaway and the daughter of the chief of an affluent native tribe in the area. Because of this alliance, the Brazilians gained food, laborers, women, and even protection from other native tribes. This allowed the Sousa to set up many sugar plantations and fixed Portuguese control at the center of the agricultural and industrial core of Brazil. The province of Pernambaco flourished because of similar successes with the native Tobajara. The donatário, Duarte Coelho Pereira, had married into a rich and well-connected family, which provided him with financial support, but he was especially fortunate because his brother in law had also married the daughter of the chief. This alliance allowed them to fight off the French and their Indian allies, and even would lead to making Pernambaco "the northern focal point of Portuguese America."(2) Other captaincies, such as Porto Seguro, failed because of fighting with the local Aimore people. This was likely caused by the large number of Portuguese couples already existing, and therefore the lack of intermarriage between the Portuguese and the native peoples. Similarly Bahia failed because it was owned by veterans of wars in India, where abuse to natives was common, causing the natives to rebel and ceremonially capture and eat the donatário and several other citizens.

                It has become very clear that the success of early colonial captaincies were almost completely dependent on support from the local native tribes. Diplomacy between the donatário and the chief of the natives, usually involving marriage as a bond, became the most important factor towards the success of a captaincy. And because of the violent nature of the Portuguese towards these natives, most of these captaincies failed, leading to the king to establish direct royal control over all but Pernambaco and Sao Vincente. He had Sousa of Sao Vincente become the first governor, with the job to establish a capitol and support the weaker or failed captaincies. That was when Brazil first gained colonial status to Portugal.