The Unlikely Protagonist - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 18

bel,thehighlyreligiousregentprincess,andherhusband,Gastond'Orléans,Countd'Eu
(one of the nephews of the Belgian master imperialist King Leopold). Neither enjoyed
the political allegiance ofthe military northe power tocontrol the Brazilian political ap-
paratus very effectively during Pedro II's long absences. 18
Slavery and Insurrection
The genteel life of the imperial court stood in contrast to the discord that rumbled con-
tinuously and ominously in Brazil's slums, backlands, and distant tropical forests. There
were real questions whether the immense territory could ever cohere into one nation,
giventhefrailtyofitspoliticalinstitutionsanditsdivergenthistoriesanddubiousbound-
aries. Controversies in territorial governance were matched by the resistance and rebel-
lions that attended the slave economies, based on both native and imported African pop-
ulations. Slavery was the key economic institution until 1888, with profound impacts
that stretched well past that date. 19 If the monarchy was Brazil's salient political institu-
tion, slavery was its defining economic one.
Portuguese slavery was well established in the fifteenth century along the African
coast, and Portugal itself was home to more than 100,000 African and Mediterranean
slaves prior to its forays into the New World. 20 Indeed, the first African slaves to Brazil
came from Portugal, where their Christian credentials could be assured and the proper
taxes paid on them. 21 The techniques developed for African slave trade were adapted to
theNewWorldandweresimpleintheiressentials:stimulateindigenouswarfarethrough
manipulation of warring factions and trade in commodities and weapons. Prisoners of
warandothercaptiveswerethenshuntedintothecommerceofhumanchattel. 22 Slavery
was hardly a novelty in the Mediterranean, since it predated Roman days, but the integ-
ration of humans into international trade routes as bulk commodities was largely a Por-
tuguese innovation in this phase of globalization.
Slavery in Brazil, whether of natives or of Africans, was the first real national insti-
tution: it crucially shaped early forms of governance, since the legal frameworks were
largelystructuredtocontrolterritorieswithimpliedrightstopeopleswithinthem.While
slavery of native groups was theoretically forbidden by the mid-sixteenth century, ex-
ceptions were framed within the idea of “just war” to allow bondage of captives: pa-
ganism, practices of cannibalism, and aggressions against Portuguese populations were
handy justifications for raiding tribes and shackling them to colonial enterprise. 23
For New World natives, the allure of metals (iron being as interesting to the indigenes
as gold was to the Europeans) coupled with the long history of internecine warfare
among the various coastal and interior groups produced systems of enslavement based
onwar captives and built uponindigenous forms ofenslavement. 24 Natives would soon,
unfortunately, find themselves transformed from mercantilists and traders into mer-