History

Before the first Portuguese explorers, led by Pedro Cabral, reached the coast of Brazil on April 22, 1500, Brazil is thought to have been inhabited by the indigenous Indian population for at least 10,000 years and were probably numbered no more than 1 million. They were scattered throughout the country.

The first permanent Portuguese settlement was founded at São Vicente, in the state of São Paulo (1532).

Brazil was in the beginning mainly exploited for Brazilwood, then sugarcane, coffee beans and gold mining. The first important economic period was based upon the great demand for sugar in Europe. It was grown in plantations along the northeast coast. The native people were used to work in the sugarcane fields, but when they proved to be insufficient in numbers and could not work hard enough, the importation of millions of slaves from Africa began.

Brazil's population is very diverse, which is seen nowhere else in the world. This is a result of the Portuguese settlers frequently intermarrying with both the Indians and the African slaves and there were also marriages between the Africans and Indians. Most Brazilians possess some combination of European, African, Amerindian, Asian, and Middle Eastern origin.

In 1807, as Napoleon Bonaparte closed in on Portugal's capital city of Lisbon, Prince Regent, Dom João, fled to Brazil. Once there, he established the colony as the capital of his empire. By 1821 things turned normal enough again in Europe for him to go back to Lisbon and that's when he left his son Dom Pedro I in charge of Brazil. When Dom João tried to return to Brazil the following year, Dom Pedro didn't let him and declared the country's independence from Portugal (and his own independence from his father).

In the 19^th century coffee took the place of sugar as Brazil's most important product. Because of the booming coffee production, almost one million immigrants came to Brazil, mostly Italians and also brought about the Brazilian republic. In 1889, the rich coffee farmers backed a military coup, the emperor fled and Brazil was no more an imperial country. The farmers virtually owned the country and the government for the next thirty years, until the worldwide depression stopped the coffee demand. For the next half century Brazil struggled with governmental instability, military coups and a fragile economy.

In 1989, Brazil enjoyed its first democratic election in almost 3 decades. Unfortunately, the Brazilians elected Fernando Collor de Mello. Mello's corruption did nothing to help the country and its economy, but his peaceful removal from office indicated at least that the country's political and governmental structures are stable.