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[ SEE ATTACHED TIMELINE ]
HISTORY

TIMELINE

Brazil is home to an indigenous population of ap- Brazil marks Black Awareness Day every year on and dentist nicknamed Tiradentes was hanged. as a result of a collapse in international coffee
proximately 900,000 individuals – the contem- November 20, the anniversary of the death in 1695 These planted the seeds of Brazilian nationhood. prices. The government was overthrown by force
porary descendants of the native peoples of Brazil of Zumbi dos Palmares, a leader of escaped slaves Seeking greater autonomy from European affairs by a revolutionary movement led by Getulio Var-
that first inhabited this part of the Americas. who fought for the right to live free. in order to promote the social and economic de- gas, who went on to become president. During
th
European explorers arrived in South Ameri- By the 18 century Brazil had become estab- velopment of Brazil, Emperor Pedro I declared the presidencies of Getulio Vargas and Juscelino
ca during the late 15th century during the Age of lished as a source of mineral riches – gold in par- independence on September 7, 1822. September Kubitschek, Brazil adopted a strategy of rapid
Discovery. Brazil was officially “discovered” in 1500 ticular – and the largest global supplier of coffee, 7 is celebrated each year as Independence Day, a industrialization through import substitution. In-
by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral, which grew so important as a sector that its national holiday in Brazil. Uniquely among Latin dustrialization and domestic production was en-
which led to Brazil being established as a colo- production came to dominate Brazil’s economy. American nations, Brazil’s independence was ne- couraged. President Kubitschek is celebrated as
ny of the Portuguese Empire when the Treaty of Around this time, the capital of Brazil was moved gotiated peacefully with Portugal, while the Span- the President who decided to move Brazil’s capi-
Tordesillas divided the New World between Spain to Rio de Janeiro, after having been in Salvador for ish viceroyalties in America had to fight fiercely to tal from Rio de Janeiro to the geographic heart of
and Portugal, but attempts to gain a foothold in over 200 years. During the Napoleonic Wars in win their independence. the country as part of this economic development
Brazil were also made by France (France Antarc- Europe in the early 19th century, the Portuguese Brazil became a republic on November 15, 1889, strategy. The new capital, Brasilia, was inaugurat-
tique) and the Netherlands (New Holland). At this court left Lisbon to seek shelter in Brazil. This following a peaceful republican movement. The ed in 1960 and has grown from an administrative
time, Brazil was a preeminent supplier of riches prompted Brazil’s first wave of economic develop- fledgling republic adopted a federal system of gov- center to become the fourth-largest city in Brazil.
from the New World, including a lustrous, deep- ment, as Rio de Janeiro became the center of the ernment that still exists today, with the same in- The 1960s and 1970s saw Brazil fall under a
red timber called brasilwood, from which Bra- Portuguese Empire. However, Brazil was limited stitutions – an executive branch led by a President, period of military rule that came to an end in
zil may have derived its name. Not all trade was to trading with Portugal and its ally, Great Britain. a bicameral National Congress vested with legisla- 1985, when power was transferred back into ci-
positive: Brazil was part of the slave trade from There were stirrings of unrest against Portuguese tive authority and an independent Supreme Court. vilian hands and free elections were held. Despite
Africa to provide labor to work on the sugar plan- rule, the most celebrated of which is the Minas In the 1930s Brazil was hit by the Great Depres- strong GDP growth led by industrial production
tations, but slavery was outlawed in 1888. Today, Conspiracy, during which a young cavalry officer sion that spread contagion into Brazil’s economy during this period, huge swathes of the popu-
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