Rental Cars Brazil - History of Brazil
Brazil's history can be traced back to American-Indian civilizations dating back to 5000 BC. The first Europeans to reach Brazil were led by a Portuguese Admiral named Pedro Alvares Cabral (1500). The natives consisted of several hundred different tribes, numbering several million, but suffered decimation at the hands of colonial ambitions, mass importation of slaves and the arrival of exotic disease from Europe. Eventually interbreeding saw the disappearance of true bred natives, but pockets remain in the Amazon jungle.
While Spain was bringing Catholicism to the rest of South America, Portugal set about claiming the vast area, known today as Brazil. It’s likely that the vast impregnable Amazon, lacking in gold, made the area unappealing to the Spanish conquistadors. Ideal for agriculture, the land attracted many Portuguese immigrants.
Who enslaved the locals for labour, and drove the rest off the land using vigilante bandeirantes (half caste offspring).
When Napoleonic seized Lisbon, regent prince Dom João VI and his government decamped to Brazil and set up Rio as Portugal’s administrative capital for a brief period. In 1822 , his son Dom Pedro, who had been left behind in Brazil when everyone returned to Portugal, led a successful campaign for freedom by valiantly declaring ‘Independence or death’. Brazil subsequently went through national identity development.
After this Brazil really began to grow and prosper, becoming a major coffee exporter and boosting the population with many imported African slaves. When this practice was abolished in 1888, new opportunities arose and Italian and other Europeans immigrated. In 1889, a military coup toppled the Brazilian empire. The next fifty years saw a series of military and fascist governments, occasionally interrupted by a liberal alliance or big spending government. A legacy of this is the disparate wealth apparent between the vast working class and small, powerful elite.
During the 20th C the industrial economy was developing very quickly. Rapid changes in social and political systems proved to be difficult. Coffee and sugar remained key exports.
The 50's and 60's saw more rapid economic growth and the restart of Brazil's society. In November of 1989, Brazil had their first public election with the opportunity to elect a president by popular vote - the first in over 30 years. The people of Brazil elected Ferando Collor de Mello. Mello was voted in on a narrow but solid majority. He was later being accused of leading an extortion ring stealing over US$1 billion from the economy of Brazil. He later escaped prison.
Vice President Itamar Franco became president in 1992. He introduced new currency into Brazil and stabilized the economy. Franco also had a former economic minister on staff, Fernando Enrique Cerdoso. Cardoso gradually built up a standard of trust which would help in the re-election of Franco for a second term.
Recently the government has been focusing on the ethnic diversity in the country, especially the relative positions of, the Brazilian Indian, black and white populations. Towards the end of 2002, ultra left wing socialist Lula da Silva pulled off a landslide victory promising to re-address wealth disparity, leaving many economists uneasy.
