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Portugal Colonization of Brazil
The growth of Portuguese interests in the Americas was
slow,
the king being absorbed with establishing Portuguese
hegemony in
Asia. In addition, the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494,
arranged by
Pope Alexander VI, divided the unexplored world between
Spain and
Portugal and forbade Portugal from exploring beyond a
meridian
drawn 1,600 kilometers miles west of the Cape Verde
Islands. In
1502 Fernão Noronha was given a three-year commercial
monopoly on
dyewood in return for exploring 300 leagues (about 1,500
kilometers) of the Brazilian coast each year. During the
last
years of Manuel I's reign, the first colonists were sent
to
Brazil to establish a sugar industry. Additional colonists
were
sent during the reign of João III, and, in 1530, Martim
Afonso de
Sousa was named major captain of Brazil and invested with
the
power to distribute land among captains or
donatários,
much as had been done in Madeira when it was colonized a
century
before. These captaincies were large strips of land that
extended
from the coast into the interior. The captains settled
colonists
in their respective captaincies and were required to
provide them
protection and justice.
As the captaincies were independent of one another,
they were
unable to defend themselves from foreign pirates.
Consequently,
João III appointed a governor general with authority over
the
captaincies. The first governor general, Tomé de Sousa,
was
appointed in 1549 and established his capital at São
Salvador da
Baía. He defeated French pirates in a naval engagement in
the bay
of Rio de Janeiro. Intensified colonization under de Sousa
began
in the form of coastal settlements and spread to the
interior.
The colonists cultivated indigenous crops, especially
manioc, and
introduced new ones such as wheat, rice, grapes, oranges,
and
sugarcane from Madeira and São Tomé. Sugar soon became
Brazil's
most important export.
Data as of January 1993
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