Beautiful Brazil

Portugal had no interest in Brazil until the French started to settle there. The original capitanias, which were similar to the 13 english colonies in North America, and gave shape to Brazil's modern-day states. It also later lead to federalism. The economy was centered around sugar. Sugar requires a lot of hard work and Europe was in high demand for sugar. However, the natives were not good slaves and there weren't many to begin with. Many refused to work and were used to just hunting regularly. In order to boost the economy the Portuguese got slaves from Africa. A minimum of 3 million slaves were brought to Brazil from the 1530's to the 1850s. They were mainly brought to work in the sugarcane fields however, there was interbreeding between the Indians, Blacks. and Portuguese. The Portuguese always saw themselves as non racist, and these thoughts still exist in modern-day Brazil. Brazil's population and importance slowly grew which eventually led to their independence. By the late 18th century Brazil was richer than Portugal! When I read this I laughed out loud because originally Portugal didn't even want Brazil until France started to settle there. This reminded me of a little kid. When Brazil became richer than Portugal the thought of independence became realistic and spread. Brazil's independence was mostly because of Napoleon. Learning about Brazil's history is very interesting to me.