India and Brazil - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 175

the rain forest. They found no gold or silver. One commodity worth
trading for was the brasil tree, a source of red dye and possessed of a hard
wood, today used for violin bows. The native population perhaps num-
bered two to four million, who were peripatetic, with a little farming. They
were warlike and some were cannibalistic.
The Portuguese began to cultivate sugar, which needed laborers. At
first they tried to enslave the natives, but they escaped or died. Next they
imported Black Africans, thus establishing slavery that lasted until 1888.
A few Portuguese earned great wealth on the backs of the slaves. The first
capital was at Sao Salvador da Bahia, on the northeast coast. Virtually no
one settled the interior of the Amazon Basin. Two hundred years later
prospectors discovered gold and diamonds in the southeast in the region
named Minas Gerais (General Mines). Although the gold and diamonds
were soon mined out, other minerals remain. The Portuguese moved the
capital of the colony to Rio de Janeiro in 1763.
At the turn of the 19th century, Brazil was a large, prosperous colony
ruled by a European elite and supported by millions of African slaves.
In many aspects it operated autonomously from the mother country.
To forestall quarrels between two powerful Roman Catholic nations,
the Pope in 1494 had proclaimed a compromise that divided the world.
Portugal would get the right to trade and colonize east of a north-south
line through South America, extending 180° to the other side of the globe,
and Spain would get the other half of the globe. This gave Portugal Brazil,
Africa, India, and the Spice Islands (present-day Indonesia). Spain got the
west of South America, the Pacific Ocean, and the Philippines. The Pope
gave nothing to the Protestant nations of England and the Netherlands.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the fateful event was the rise of
Napoleon Bonaparte in France. In 1807 he invaded the Iberian Peninsula,
striking directly at Lisbon to end the country's alliance with Great Britain.
The royal family fled, sailing to Rio, where King John VI set up his court.
With the defeat of Napoleon, John returned to Lisbon, leaving his son
Pedro (Peter) in charge. In 1822 Pedro declared Brazil was an independent
nation, and took the title of emperor. This was done peacefully. In the
same period, the Spanish colonies of South America were fighting for their
independence and establishing republics. The example of the American
Revolution of 1776-1783 inspired them. The empire continued under
Pedro and later his son, Pedro II. Under both father and son, the empire
had many features of a constitutional monarchy. Slavery was abolished in
1888. The following year a military coup d'etat overthrew Pedro II and