History 307 – History of Latin America – September 29, 2003

 The “Other” Latin America – BRAZIL

I.                  Origins:

A.      1494: Treaty of Tordesillas

B.      1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral

C.       trading posts; “brazil” wood (for dyes)

D.      1532: first real town: São Vicente

 

II.               Not silver, but SUGAR

A.      Feudal/ Capitalism;  Capitalist Feudalism

B.      “Feudalism:”  King grants vast lands to friends;  each “Captain” rules his lands like mini-king – own armed men, acts as judge & jury, gathers rent & labor from everyone on “his” land

C.       “Capitalism” – vast world demand for Sugar;  huge production centers;  international commercial network;

·          FAZENDA (plantation);

·          Monoculture (single crop produced for export);

·          Slave Labor

 

III.           Portuguese & Native Peoples & others

A.      Multitude of hunter-gatherer peoples in forested interior

B.      BANDEIRANTES (soldier-slave hunters)

C.       Chronic warfare (lasting well into 1800s)

D.      Jesuits: Antônio Vieira & others attempt to protect the Native Peoples; “Sermon at Maranhão” (1653) denounces Bandeirantes

E.      1500s – 1800s: rivalry with French & Dutch;  Spain

 

IV.              1500-1800: Evolution of Distinctive Brazilian culture

A.      Afro-Portuguese culture

·    Portuguese: language; religion; architecture; visual art; link to European culture (Renaissance, Enlightenment, Science, Democracy)

·    African: crafts, dress, words, music; distinctly African spirituality (pervasive spiritual realities; multiple approaches to the Divine)

·    [unlike Spanish America, very limited Native influence]

B.      “Wild West” qualities

·    Unlike Spain, Portugal cannot really administer its vast empire; lots of local autonomy

·    vast, unexplored interior; MATTO GROSSO (huge interior region); Sertão/ “frontier”

·    importance of farming, ranching, for export (sugar; coffee; cattle)

·    Like Spanish Colonies: local economy is keyed NOT to local needs but to Mother Country;  In the exchange between colony & Mother Country, wealth flows (1) to elites in Mother Country and (2) to their allies in the colonies (3) NOT to local people in the colony

·    Cowboy Hero (“vaqueiros/” “gauchos”) – physical courage; aggressiveness; fierce independent mindedness; violence; egalitarianism

 C.       Master-Slave culture

·    Vast plantations

·    Masters: elite is good! Hierarchy is good! Elite ought to rule;  elite ought to enjoy special privilege; it’s important to concentrate wealth at the top; the Gov’t ought to represent the elite above all; “Casa Grande” (hereditary home); inter-marriage, thick kin networks (godparents, cousins/friends)

·    Slaves: experience of total exploitation; masters withhold all education & inculcate slave mentality;  anger & rebellion (“quilombos”; REPUBLIC OF PALMARES (1603)

D.      “Reinóis” (European-Portuguese) v. “Mazombos” (American-born Portuguese)

·    chronic tension, as in English colonies, as in Spanish colonies

·    Like Spanish & English colonies, by 1700s, a fully mature society emerges, quite distinct from “Mother Country”

·    1700s: Mazombos insist on local rule & even independence from Portugal

·    1788-89: rebellion!  José da Silva Xavier (“Tiradentes”); executed as rebel

 

Queens University of Charlotte  1900 Selwyn Avenue  Charlotte, NC  28274
Modified by:  H.  Kamerling