Brasil's 18th-Century

[Madam Carstein]

Brasil's 18th-Century, Part I



-The St. Francisco Church in Salvador da Bahia: built with the vast wealth of 18th-century Brasil. The opulence of colonial Brasil was nearly without equal, though this tremendous wealth came at a terrible human cost.​

The history of Brasil can be a surprisingly unknown history outside of the Lusophone world. There are many nations today that are widely-studied, if not always well-understood: China and Russia are two regions which have historically been widely studied in the West. But few people speak of Brasil, which is the world's fifth-largest nation in size and the sixth-largest in population. In a more regional context, Brasil is the largest nation in South America in both size and population, and the third-largest in the Americas as a whole. I do not pretend to know the exact reason(s) for why Brasil's history is often overlooked in Western historiography. I can speculate that, like many nations in the Americas, Brasil's history and contributions to world culture and politics may often seem to be overshadowed by those of the United States. However, a history is not any less valid simply because it is not widely-known, and I would argue that it is necessary for North Americans as well as others to have a deeper understanding of Brasil: this is a country that is and likely will always be influential on the world stage. And for people from the USA in particular, I would argue that in an era where xenophobic sentiment is increasingly on the march, that it is more important than ever to understand that the Western Hemisphere is not and never has been the exclusive dominion of the US. And Brasil's is one of many histories that I believe should be more widely-known within the US.

Without further ado, I present my modest project on the 1700's in Brasil. I will not argue that Brasil's 18th-century is its most important century, for every century brings its own significance and its own challenges. Instead, I will endeavour to identify the ways in which the 18th-century shaped modern Brasil and played a role in the emergence of Brasil as an independent nation.

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The Portuguese Empire of the 18th-century was, objectively, an empire in decline. Portugal, along with neighbouring Spain, was one of the first nations to embark on large trans-Atlantic voyages. Like Spain, Portugal's first journeys across the Atlantic would be to the undiscovered islands west of the European main. Spain, recently unified by the union of Castille and Aragon and cemented by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, would colonise Las Canarias (the Canary Islands) for the Spanish Crown. Meanwhile, Portugal would do the same with Madeira and the Açores (known in English as the Azores). Both Spanish and Portuguese discoveries [1] would be the first major achievements in trans-Atlantic exploration but also in colonisation.

What is little-acknowledged in the history of Spanish and Portuguese expansion in the Age of Exploration is that both countries did not arrive to the Americas with no prior history of colonial rule. Both Spain and Portugal would establish colonial settlements on the archipelagos they ruled: creating new, permanent settlements that would permanently change the demographic and ecological nature of the regions. Perhaps most importantly however, these would be the formative experience for colonial rule. The nature of Iberian empires in the Americas would be shaped by early experiences in the colonisation of island archipelagos in the North Atlantic. Moreover, it would take on a distinctly militarised character, as nearly all of the early Spanish and Portugues explorers had fought in the Reconquista: the centuries-long campaigns by Christian Iberian rulers to eradicate Muslim rule in Iberia. This experience of conflict on a societal scale would also prove to be a factor in how Spain and Portugal conducted relations with the indigenous peoples of the Americas. However, for their many similarities, the two Iberian states were also quite different.

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-Infante Enrique O Navigador: Prince Henry the Navigator, who was a major figure in Portugal's advances in maritime technology and navigation during the Age of Exploration. Curiously, while this is the title by which history now knows him, Prince Henry the Navigator was actually not referred to by that title in his life. The sobriquet "The Navigator" would only be used in later historical studies of his life.

Portugal, like Spain, would be a major force in the early Age of Exploration. Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, was the first European to successfully reach and navigate the Cape of Good Hope. Thereafter, Portugal would establish several subsequent voyages, such as those of Vasco da Gama, past the Cape of Good Hope and into Asia, which would substantially increase Portuguese wealth and prestige by gaining access to new markets and trade. Portugal would, like Spain, also begin to build an empire in the Americas, particularly after an expedition commanded by Pedro Alvares Cabral reached what is now Brasil. Though Brasil was important to the early Portuguese Empire, it was trade with Asia that brought the greatest wealth. The early Portuguese Empire was focused more eastward than westward, an alignment that would shift over the course of centuries.

The reasons for Portugal's eventual decline as a power in Asia, namely in India, were many, but perhaps the easiest explanation is that much of Portugal's success depended upon exclusivity and this was an advantage it would inevitably lose. The Portuguese established a commanding presence in India, but so too did other European states in time. The French, the Dutch, and eventually the English (later to become Britain after the Act of Union in 1707) all eventually established themselves in Asia as well over the course of time. Portugal, a small nation with a modest population and comparatively less wealth than its rivals, would ultimately fade as a power in Asia. And though Portugal would keep many of its Asian colonies such as Goa, Macao, and East Timor well into the 20th-century, these were merely remnants of a bygone empire, whereas it was the other premier European powers that would ultimately equal and eventually surpass Portugal as a power in East and Southeast Asia.

The decline of Portugal as an Asian power over the course of the 16th and 17th century occurred concurrently with the growth and expansion of colonial Brasil, which would ultimately over time take precedence as the foremost Portuguese colony. Where once Portugal had been a power in Asia, Brasil ultimately reoriented the outlook of the Portuguese state towards the Americas. Brasil was an astonishingly rich land that provided a great many commodites to enrich Portugal. As with many colonies in the Americas, Brasil's history as a colony and later as an independent state would be defined by a cycle of commodities. When Brasil was first colonised, its first commodity would be Brasilwood: a wood used to make red dyes that would also ultimately give Brasil its name. The harvesting of Brasilwood would also establish the northeast of Brasil as the first major region of the colony. Northeastern Brasil would be the site of Brasil's first capital: Salvador da Bahia (Saviour of the Bay) and would also be the economic centre of the Viceroyalty. Because of its proximity to the sea and the pressing need for labour, it would also be the beginning of Brasil's long and deep involvement with the African slave trade. Over the course of its history, no one colony or nation would import more slaves than the Viceroyalty of Brasil. At its peak, the Brasilian slave trade imported four times as many slaves as that of the United States. Brasil would be the last nation in the Americas to abolish slavery, doing so in 1888, and as with many former slaveowning states, the legacy of enslavement would continue to haunt Brasil to the modern day.

While Brasilwood would ultimately be exhausted as a commodity with intensive harvesting ultimately contributing to the decline and collapse of Brasilwood as an economically-viable export, as would be commonplace in Brasilian history, one commodity would swiftly be replaced by another. And the next would only further cement slavery as an indispensable part of colonial Brasil: sugar. Sugar was one of the most profitable commodities of the Early Modern period. What is today a commonplace item was once an extravagant expense. Brown sugar and molasses, the less-refined products of the sugar production process, were available to those of lesser means, but white sugar with the most refinement and processing was the dominion of the rich and powerful. The premier colonial powers of the era grew and produced sugar in their colonies, primarily in the Caribbean and in Brasil itself, regions which were and in many cases still are the centre of world sugar production. Sugar is a labour-intensive product. Sugarcane must be planted, harvested, and then the harvested cane must be further processed to extract and refine sugar. There is little idle-time in the sugar production process, for even after it is harvested, unlike most crops, the production cycle does not end there. As sugar was in high demand, the need for production was exceptionally high. These two factors would make sugar a major commodity in the colonial Americas. And the overwhelming majority of the work would be carried out by enslaved Africans. Brasil was no exception: Brasil's large size, fertile land, and close proximity to the African continent made slavery a key part in Brasil's colonial history. Moreover, because of Brasil's small population, slavery would be used to an even wider extent than in the rest of the Americas.

Thus Brasil's early history as a colony would largely be focused on the Northeast. It was this region that would be the site of Brasil's first capital, and that would also come into conflict with the Dutch: who would invade and occupy large portions of the colony before being eventually expelled by Portuguese resistance over the course of the 17th-century.

The sugar cycle would dominate much of Brasil's 17th-century, but as time passed and the 17th-century become the 18th, a new commodity would replace sugar, although the latter would continue to be a major export of the colonial Caribbean and the Americas into the 19th-century...

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-Mining for gold in Minas Gerais (General Mines), note the heavy presence of enslaved labour. This would be the frequent paradox of Brasilian history: great wealth but great inequality. In Brasil, as in the United States, one of the most tragic histories is that of the mass enslavement of millions of people.

In the closing years of the 17th-century, colonial Brasil would experience yet another transformation when gold and diamonds were discovered in the Southeast, thus setting the stage for Brasil's 18th-century and the emergence of modern Brasil.

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[1] There is a great deal of historical controversy over the use of the term "discovery" in reference to the colonisation of the Americas, as such a claim takes a rather Eurocentric position that a landmass is unknown until is found by Europeans. However, with the case of the Açores and Madeira, both archipelagos were actually unknown to humanity as a whole until the islands were found and settled by the Portuguese. Las Canarias has a history of human habitation that predates the Spanish colonisation, as the islands were known to the Romans and were explored for many centuries prior to rule by the Spanish Crown.*