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Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years When Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil, the region was inhabited by hundreds of different types of Jiquabu tribes, "the earliest going back at least 10,000 years in the highlands of Minas Gerais". The dating of the origins of the first inhabitants, who were called "Indians" (índios) by the Portuguese, is still a matter of dispute among archaeologists. The earliest pottery ever found in the Western Hemisphere, radiocarbon-dated 8,000 years old, has been excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil, near Santarém, providing evidence to overturn the assumption that the tropical forest region was too poor in resources to have supported a complex prehistoric culture"
Cave painting at Serra da Capivara National Park. This area has the largest concentration of prehistoric sites in the Americas.
Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó island at the mouth of the Amazon River. Archeologists have found sophisticated pottery in their excavations on the island. These pieces are large, and elaborately painted and incised with representations of plants and animals. These provided the first evidence that a complex society had existed on Marajó. Evidence of mound building further suggests that well-populated, complex and sophisticated settlements developed on this island, as only such settlements were believed capable of such extended projects as major earthworks. The extent, level of complexity, and resource interactions of the Marajoara culture have been disputed. Working in the 1950s in some of her earliest research, American Betty Meggers suggested that the society migrated from the Andes and settled on the island. Many researchers believed that the Andes were populated by Paleoindian migrants from North America who gradually moved south after being hunters on the plains. In the 1980s, another American archeologist, Anna Curtenius Roosevelt, led excavations and geophysical surveys of the mound Teso dos Bichos. She concluded that the society that constructed the mounds originated on the island itself. The pre-Columbian culture of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population as large as 100,000 people. he Native Americans of the Amazon rainforest may have used their method of developing and working in Terra preta to make the land suitable for the large-scale agriculture needed to support large populations and complex social formations such as chiefdoms
Distribution of indigenous peoples on the coast of Brazil in the 16th C. Yellow = Tupí peoples (inclusive of Guarani), Blue = non-Tupi peoples (Jê-speaking peoples, also known as Tapuia.) The papal bull inter caetera had divided the New World between Spain and Portugal in 1493, and the Treaty of Tordesillas added to this by moving the dividing line westwards. There are many theories regarding who was the first European to set foot on the land now called Brazil. Besides the widely accepted view of Cabral's discovery, some say that it was Duarte Pacheco Pereira between November and December 1498 and some others say that it was first encountered by Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, a Spanish navigator who had accompanied Columbus in his first voyage of discovery to the Americas, having supposedly arrived in today's Pernambuco region on 26 January 1500 but was unable to claim the land because of the Treaty of Tordesillas.
The history of Brazil begins with indigenous people in Brazil. Europeans arrived in Brazil at the ending of the 15th century. The first European to claim sovereignty over Indigenous lands part of what is now the territory of the Federative Republic of Brazil on the continent of South America was Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467/1468 – c. 1520) on 22 April 1500 under the sponsorship of the Kingdom of Portugal. From the 16th to the early 19th century, Brazil was a colony and a part of the Portuguese Empire. The country expanded south along the coast and west along the Amazon and other inland rivers from the original 15 donatary captaincy colonies established on the northeast Atlantic coast east of the Tordesillas Line of 1494 (approximately the 46th meridian west) that divided the Portuguese domain to the east from the Spanish domain to the west, although Brazil was at one time a colony of Spain. The country's borders were only finalized in the early 20th century. On 7 September 1822, the country declared its independence from Portugal and it became the Empire of Brazil. A military coup in 1889 established the First Brazilian Republic. The country has seen two dictatorship periods: the first during Vargas Era (1937–1945) and the second during the military rule (1964–1985) under Brazilian military government.
Landing of Pedro Landing of Pedro Álvares Álvares Cabral in Brazil, Cabral in Brazil, South America, 1500. South America, 1500.
Cabral (center Cabral (center- -left, pointing) sights the pointing) sights the Brazilian mainland for Brazilian mainland for the first time on 22 the first time on 22 April 1500. April 1500. left,
In April 1500, Brazil was claimed for Portugal on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese encountered stone-using natives divided into several tribes, many of whom shared the same Tupi–Guarani language family, and fought among themselves. Early names for the country included Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) and Terra dos Papagaios (Land of the Parrots). After European arrival, the land's major export was a type of tree the traders and colonists called pau-Brasil (Latin for wood red like an ember) or brazilwood from which gave it its final name, a large tree (Caesalpinia echinata) whose trunk yields a prized red dye, and which was nearly wiped out as a result of overexploitation. Until 1529 Portugal had very little interest in Brazil mainly due to the high profits gained through its commerce with India, China, and the East Indies. This lack of interest allowed traders, pirates, and privateers of several countries to poach profitable Brazilwood in lands claimed by Portugal, with France setting up the colony of France Antarctique in 1555. In response the Portuguese Crown devised a system to effectively occupy Brazil, without paying the costs. Through the hereditary Captaincies system, Brazil was divided into strips of land that were donated to Portuguese noblemen, who were in turn responsible for the occupation and administration of the land and answered to the king. The system was a failure, and only four lots were successfully occupied: Pernambuco, São Vicente (later called São Paulo), Ilhéus and Porto Seguro. In 1572, the country was divided into the Northern Government based in Salvador and the Southern Government based in Rio de Janeiro.
Spanish rule In 1578, the then King of Portugal Dom Sebastião disappeared in the Alcacer-Quibir war, a conflict between Portugal and the Moors in Morocco. The king had entered the war without much allied support or the necessary resources to fight properly. With his disappearance, and since he had no direct heirs, King Philip II of Spain, who was his uncle, took control of the Portuguese lands, in what was called the Iberian Union which lasted only briefly until 60 years later when John, Duke of Bragança, rebelled with the announced purpose of restoring Portuguese independence, which he achieved, thus becoming John IV of Portugal. Sebastian was never found, and neither was his body, which made the Portuguese believe that one day he would come back and take Philip out of the government. Brazil was added to the Spanish Empire but kept under Portuguese administration, until Portugal restored its independence in 1668 and the Portuguese colonial possessions were given back to the Portuguese crown.
Indigenous rebellions The Tamoyo Confederation (Confederação dos Tamoios in Portuguese language) was a military alliance of aboriginal chieftains of the sea coast ranging from what is today Santos to Rio de Janeiro, which occurred from 1554 to 1567. The main reason for this rather unusual alliance between separate tribes was to react against slavery and wholesale murder and destruction brought by the early Portuguese discoverers and colonisers of Brazil onto the Tupinambá people. In the Tupi language, "Tamuya" means "elder" or "grandfather". Cunhambebe was elected chief of the Confederation by his counterparts, and together with chiefs Pindobuçú, Koakira, Araraí and Aimberê, declared war on the Portuguese.
Portugal's small geographic size and small population meant that it needed "foreign participation in the colonization and commerce of its empire", and the Dutch had played such a role, which was mutually beneficial. As part of the truce of 1609-1621 the Dutch also agreed to delay the establishment of a West India Company, a counterpart to the already existing Dutch East India Company. By the end of the truce, the Dutch had vastly expanded their trade networks and gained over half of the carrying trade between Brazil and Europe. (The northern Netherlands operated 29 sugar refineries by 1622, versus 3 in 1595. In 1621, the twelve-year peace treaty expired and the United Netherlands immediately chartered a Dutch West India Company. The Dutch–Portuguese War, which had started in 1602, resumed, and through the new company the Dutch now started to interfere with the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America.
Unsuccessful 1624 invasion As part of the Groot Desseyn plan, Admiral Jacob Willekens in December 1623 led a West Indische Compagnie (WIC) force to Salvador, which was then the capital of Brazil and the center of a captaincy famous for its sugarcane. The expedition consisted of 26 ships and 3,300 men. They arrived there on May 8, 1624, whereupon the Portuguese Governor Diogo Tristão de Mendonça Furtado surrendered. However, on April 30, 1625, the Portuguese recaptured the city with the help of a combined Spanish and Portuguese force consisting of 52 ships and 12,500 men. The city would then play a critical role as a base of the Portuguese struggle against the Dutch for the control of Brazil. In 1628, the seizure of a Spanish silver convoy by Piet Heyn in Matanzas Bay provided the Dutch WIC the funds for another attempt to conquer Brazil at Pernambuco.
Establishment of Dutch Brazil Successful 1630 invasion In the summer of 1629, the Dutch coveted a newfound interest in obtaining the Brazilian state (captaincy) of Pernambuco, the largest and richest sugar-producing area in the world. The Dutch fleet of 65 ships was led by Hendrick Corneliszoon Loncq; the WIC gained control of Olinda by February 16, 1630, and Recife (the capital of Pernambuco) and António Vaz by March. Matias de Albuquerque, the Portuguese governor, led a strong Portuguese resistance which hindered the Dutch from developing their forts on the lands which they had captured. By 1631, the Dutch left Olinda and tried to gain control of the Fort of Cabedello on Paraíba, the Rio Grande, Rio Formoso, and Cabo de Santo Agostinho. These attempts were also unsuccessful, however. Still in control of António Vaz and Recife, the Dutch later gained a foothold at Cabo de Santo Agostinho. By 1634 the Dutch controlled the coastline from the Rio Grande do Norte to Pernambuco's Cabo de Santo Agostinho. They still maintained control of the seas as well. By 1635 many Portuguese settlers were choosing Dutch-occupied land over Portuguese-controlled land. The Dutch offered freedom of worship and security of property. In 1635 the Dutch conquered three strongholds of the Portuguese: the towns of Porto Calvo, Arraial do Bom Jesus, and Fort Nazaré on Cabo de Santo Agostinho. These strongholds gave the Dutch increased sugar lands which led to an increase in profit.
Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654. The main cities of the Dutch colony of New Holland were the capital Mauritsstad (today part of Recife), Frederikstadt (João Pessoa), Nieuw Amsterdam (Natal), Saint Louis (São Luís), São Cristóvão, Fort Schoonenborch (Fortaleza), Sirinhaém, and Olinda. From 1630 onward, the Dutch Republic conquered almost half of Brazil's settled European area at the time, with its capital in Recife. The Dutch West India Company (GWC) set up its headquarters in Recife. The governor, Johan Maurits, invited artists and scientists to the colony to help promote Brazil and increase immigration. However, the tide turned against the Dutch when the Portuguese won a significant victory at the Second Battle of Guararapes in 1649. Dutch Brazil 1630-1654
After returning from Brazil, Johan Maurits of Nassau became known as "The Brazilian" in the Netherlands. In 1637, the WIC gave control of its Brazilian conquests, now called "Nieuw Holland," to Johan Maurits van Nassau- Siegen (John Maurice of Nassau), the great-nephew of William the Silent. Within the year, Johan Maurits captured the Brazilian province of Ceara and sent an expedition to capture the West African trading post of Elmina Castle, which became the capital of the Dutch Gold Coast. In 1641 the Dutch captured the province of Maranhao, meaning that Dutch control now extended across the entire coastline between the Amazon and Sao Francisco Rivers. Maurits claimed to have always loved Brazil due to its beauty and its people, and under his rule, the colony thrived. His patronage of Dutch Golden Age painters, such as Albert Eckhout and Frans Post, to depict Brazil's richness resulted in works showing different races, landscapes, and still lifes. He also invited naturalists Georg Marcgraf and Willem Piso to Brazil.
On 26 January 1654, the Dutch surrendered and signed the capitulation, but only as a provisional pact. By May 1654, the Dutch Republic demanded that New Holland was to be given back. On 6 August 1661, New Holland was formally ceded to Portugal through the Treaty of The Hague. While of only transitional importance for the Dutch, this period was of considerable importance in the historical memory in Brazil. This period also precipitated a decline in Brazil's sugar industry, since conflict between the Dutch and Portuguese disrupted Brazilian sugar production, amidst rising competition from British, French, and Dutch planters in the Caribbean. The Habsburg family had ruled the Low Countries from 1482; the area became part of the Spanish Empire under the Spanish Habsburgs in 1556; however, in 1568 the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) broke out, and the Dutch established the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in 1581. As part of the war, Dutch raiders attacked Spanish lands, colonies, and ships. In 1594 Philip II, who was king both of Spain and (from 1580) of Portugal, gave permission for Dutch ships bound for Brazil to sail together once a year in a fleet of twenty ships. In 1609 the Habsburgs and the Dutch Republic signed a Twelve Years' Truce, during which the Dutch Republic was allowed to trade with Portuguese settlements in Brazil (Portugal was in a dynastic union with Habsburg Spain from 1580 to 1640).
The Portuguese victory at the Second Battle of Guararapes, ended Dutch presence in Brazil.
They collected and published a vast amount of information on Brazil's natural history, resulting in the 1648 publication of Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, the first organized European compendium of knowledge on the Americas, which was hugely influential in learned European scientific circles for well over a century. Maurits organized a form of representative local government by creating municipal councils and rural councils with both Dutch and Brazilian Portuguese members to represent the population. Maurits worked through the councils to begin modernizing the country with streets, bridges, and roads in Recife. On the island of António Vaz, he founded the town of Mauritsstad (also known as Mauricia), where he created an astronomic observatory and a meteorological station, which were the first created by Europeans in the Americas. 17th century portrait of Antônio Filipe Camarão, Amerindian ally of the Portuguese, knighted for his service.
Although there were Dutch immigrants to Brazil, the majority of the population was Portuguese and Brazilian-born Portuguese, African slaves, and Amerindians, with Dutch rule an overlay on pre-existing social groups. The colony of Dutch Brazil had a difficult time of attracting Dutch colonists to immigrate and colonize in Brazil. Title page of Georg Marcgraf's Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648). Portrait of Henrique Dias, who led blacks against the Dutch.
Dutch colony. Most of the Dutchmen employed in the Dutch West India Company went back to the Netherlands after they were relieved of duty and did not stay to settle the colony. As such, the Dutch were a ruling minority with a Portuguese and Brazilian-born Portuguese population.] The Dutch settlers were divided into two separate groups, the first of which was known as “Dienaren” (servants). Dienaren were soldiers, bureaucrats, and Calvinist ministers employed by the WIC.
Departure of Maurits In 1640, John, 8th Duke of Braganza declared Portuguese independence from Spain, ending the six decade-long Iberian Union. As a result, the threat of further Spanish intervention against Dutch Brazil declined, since Brazil was originally and had remained a Portuguese colony. In 1641-1642 the new Portuguese regime concluded a truce with the Dutch, temporarily ending hostilities, but the Dutch remained in Brazil. In 1643 Johan Maurits equipped the expedition of Hendrik Brouwer that unsuccessfully attempted to establish an outpost in southern Chile. In 1644, the WIC recalled Johan Maurits to Europe in an attempt to cut military expenditures, following the cession of hostilities. Demise of Dutch West India Company in Brazil A year after Maurits was summoned back by the WIC board, the WIC faced a major uprising of Portuguese planters in June 1645. The Portuguese planters around Pernambuco had never fully accepted Dutch rule, and had also resented the high interest rates charged by Dutch moneylenders for loans to rebuild their plantations following the initial Dutch conquest. In August, the planters revolted and prevailed over Dutch forces in a minor battle fought outside Recife, effectively ending Dutch control over the colony. That year, the Portuguese gained Várzea, Sirinhaém, Pontal de Nazaré, the Fort of Porto Calvo, and Fort Maurits. By 1646, the WIC only controlled four toeholds along the Brazilian coast, chief among them being Recife. In the spring of 1646, the Dutch sent a relief expedition to Recife consisting of 20 ships with 2000 men, temporarily forestalling the fall of the city.
Back in Europe, the collapse of Dutch Brazil accelerated Dutch efforts to end its longstanding conflict with Spain, the Eighty Years' War. In August 1647, representatives from the Dutch province of Zeeland (the final holdout against peace with Spain) acquiesced to the Peace of Munster ending the war with Spain. In return, Zeeland obtained promises from the other Dutch provinces to support a second, larger relief expedition to reconquer Brazil. The expedition, consisting of 41 ships with 6000 men, set sail on December 26, 1647. In Brazil, the Dutch had already abandoned Itamaracá on December 13, 1647. The new expeditionary force arrived late at Recife, with many of its soldiers either dead or mutinous from lack of pay. In April 1648, the Portuguese routed the expeditionary force at the First Battle of Guararapes, fought outside Recife. The Portuguese had sent an armada of 84 ships, including 18 warships to recapture Recife.[23] The Dutch were dealt a further blow by the decisive Portuguese victory in the Recapture of Angola, which crippled the Dutch colony in Brazil as it couldn't survive without the slaves from Angola. In February 1649, the Portuguese again routed the Dutch at the Second Battle of Guararapes.
Relief of Leiden, 1574 (details on source page) The Eighty Years' War (Dutch: Tachtigjarige Oorlog; Spanish: Guerra de los Ochenta Años) or Dutch War of Independence (1568– 1648) was a revolt of the Seventeen Provinces of what are today the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg against Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands.
Location of State of Pernambuco in Brazil Independence or Death, by Pedro Américo, oil on canvas, 1888. Displayed in the Museu Paulista. The Independence of Brazil comprised a series of political and military events that led to the independence of Colonial Brazil from the Portuguese Empire as the Brazilian Empire. Most of the events occurred in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo between 1821–1824.
Indian Soldiers from the Coritiba Province Escorting Native Prisoners
Portrait Portrait of of Filipe Camarão Camarão, by Victor , by Victor Meirelles Meirelles, , oil ca. 1874 ca. 1874– –78, Victor Victor Meirelles Meirelles Filipe The Portuguese victory at the Battle of Guararapes, ended Dutch presence in Brazil. oil on canvas, on canvas, 78, Museu Museu
Queen Maria I of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves Maria I (English: Mary I) (17 December 1734 – 20 March 1816) was Queen of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. Known as Maria the Pious (in Portugal), or Maria the Mad (in Brazil), she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal.
In 1808, the Portuguese court, fleeing from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal during the Peninsular War in a large fleet escorted by British men-of-war, moved the government apparatus to its then-colony, Brazil, establishing themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From there the Portuguese king ruled his huge empire for 15 years, and there he would have remained for the rest of his life if it were not for the turmoil aroused in Portugal due, among other reasons, to his long stay in Brazil after the end of Napoleon's reign. A few moments after signing the Golden Law, Princess Isabel is greeted from the central balcony of the City Palace by a huge crowd below in the street.
The War of Independence of Brazil, also known as the Brazilian War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra da Independência do Brasil), was waged between the newly independent Brazilian Empire and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, which had just undergone the Liberal Revolution of 1820. It lasted from February 1822, when the first skirmishes took place, to March 1824, with the surrender of the Portuguese garrison in Montevideo. The war was fought on land and sea and involved both regular forces and civilian militia. Land and naval battles took place in the territories of Bahia, Cisplatina and Rio de Janeiro provinces, the vice-kingdom of Grão- Pará, and in Maranhão and Pernambuco, which today are part of Ceará, Piauí and Rio Grande do Norte states. The population of Colonial Brazil at the turn of the 19th century was 3.4 million. 60% of them were free men, mostly of Portuguese descent. At that time slaves were not counted as free people. The Portuguese army in Brazil consisted of professional troops and militiamen. All officers were appointed by the Court of Lisbon. In 1817, a Republican revolt broke out in Pernambuco. As a result, 2,000 soldiers of "Auxiliary Division" were sent to Brazil. With the arrival of the troops, native officers in Brazil were not given many responsibilities.
The Empire Flag (October 12, 1822 – November 15, 1889)
Slaves on a fazenda (coffee farm), c. 1885
The Kahal The Kahal Zur in in Mauritsstad Mauritsstad (Recife) is the oldest synagogue in the oldest synagogue in the Americas. An estimated number Americas. An estimated number of 700 Jews lived in Dutch Brazil, of 700 Jews lived in Dutch Brazil, about 4.7% of the total about 4.7% of the total population. population. Zur Israel Synagogue Israel Synagogue (Recife) is the
