Culture: History

The 90 second history of Brazil
For those of you who haven’t done your research, here goes:
Brazilian history is closely parallel to that of the US: It was discovered in 1500 and soon colonized by the Portuguese.

First, brazil-wood was extracted for its red pigment. By 1600 the Portuguese were trying to cultivate the land with slave labor.

The natives wouldn’t be enslaved, so most were hunted and killed. African slaves were brought to Bahia to help with the cultivation of new plants, mostly coffee, cotton, tobacco, sugar and cocoa.
In the 1700s a gold rush broke out in Minas Gerais. Most of the gold and precious stones were extracted (under strict supervision by the Portuguese crown) and sent to Europe for trading.

The locals didn’t like the idea of not seeing the profits, so they started plotting independence from Portugal.
The capital of Brazil was moved from Salvador to Rio (not because of the night life).
In the middle of the 19th century, the British abolished slavery and forced other emerging economies to do the same, so no one would have a competitive advantage. Brazil followed suit and abolished slavery.
In the meantime, Brazil became a republic after the king of Portugal lost his throne to democracy.

In the 20th century, there was a massive influx of Germans, Italians and Japanese, which helped organize the place a bit.

Brazil was never in any major war, mostly because Brazilians don’t really want to live anywhere else in the world. Luckily, it was never attacked by anyone, except the French and the Dutch, who kept trying to invade the Northeast, but where repeatedly defeated.