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Portugal Development of Brazil
Having lost the empire in Asia, Portugal's policy
makers
turned their attention to Brazil, where they intensified
the
cultivation of sugar, cotton, and spices. This expansion
of
agriculture required a great deal of labor, which led to
the
importation of slaves from Angola and Guinea. Amerindians
were
saved from this fate by the Jesuits, who protected them
from
enslavement.
The southern part of Brazil was occupied first, and the
north, later, owing to resistance put up by Amerindians
allied
with French pirates. In 1580 the Portuguese conquered
Paraíba,
and, later, Sergipe. In 1603 they penetrated to Ceará and,
later,
to Pará, where they founded the city of Belém. In 1637
Pedro
Teixeira launched a daring expedition into the Amazon
Basin,
following the river to its headwaters near the Pacific
coast.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, various
expeditions were sent into the interior, especially at the
end of
the seventeenth century when gold was discovered.
These expeditions were made up of adventurers known as
bandeirantes (after the Portuguese word for flag)
because
they traveled under the flag of their leader, who took
with him
kin, friends, slaves, and friendly Amerindians. These
expeditions, which followed rivers into the interior,
lasted
years. The most notable bandeirantes were Pais
Leme, who
traveled for seven years throughout present-day Minas
Gerais, and
his son-in-law, Manuel Borba Gato, who discovered several
sources
of gold on the Rio das Velhas. In addition to gold,
diamonds were
also found in abundance. The discovery of gold and
diamonds
sparked a gold rush from all over the world to Brazil and
from
the central zones to the interior, which devastated
Brazilian
agriculture. The gold and diamonds enriched the Portuguese
crown
and allowed it to spend lavishly on imported goods and
baroque
palaces, thus destroying once again the initiatives
previously
taken for indigenous economic development.
Brazilian gold also encouraged England to update its
commercial relations with Portugal. The Methuen Treaty of
1703
allowed the Portuguese a preferential duty on wine
exported to
England, in return for which Portugal removed restrictions
on the
importation of English-made goods. The Portuguese market
was soon
absorbing 10 percent of the English export trade, which
represented an increase of 120 percent above the quantity
of
goods imported to Portugal before the treaty. Portuguese
exports
to England, mainly wine, rose by less than 40 percent.
Gold from
Brazil was used to pay for this trade imbalance.
Data as of January 1993
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