© T. M. Whitmore

TODAY

•Portuguese settlement of Brazil

•The sugar plantation economies of Brazil & the Caribbean

•The Atlantic slave trade

•Post-sugar boom colonial Brazilian economies

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Last Time-Questions?

•Early Spanish colonial institutions

•Spanish Colonial Settlement patterns

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Portuguese Brazilian Settlement

• Initial Settlement PatternsState-sized settlements to private

entrepreneurs to extract dye wood “palo brazil”This initial “capitalistic-like” set up

failed by 1540 and all lands re-transferred to the crown

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Initial Settlement

TordesillasTreaty Line 1494

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Plantation Sugar in Brazil•Turkish closure of Middle Eastern

sugar & decrease in honey production in Europe => huge profits to be had

•Plantation sugar system in Brazil ~ 1540s – 1700s (dominates world’s sugar for ~ 200 yrs)Advanced agro-technologyExcellent agro-ecologyGood access to European marketsInitially Amerindian labor – later

African slaves

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Brazilian Fazendas•150-200 laborers•30 km2 (2-3 miles on a side)•Cane fields•pasture for oxen•plots for slave subsistence•woodlands for fuel•mill complex

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Impacts of Brazilian fazenda settlement

•Coastal few links inland

•Cities of less import initially

•Collapse of local Indigenous pops

•Huge import of African slaves => helped set racial composition of NE Brazil until today

•Ecological impact: deforestation, soil exhaustion

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Sugar & Slaves1500s – 1700s

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Caribbean adoption of Brazilian plantation system

•Northern European Colonies recreated Brazilian system after 1640

•Similar agro-ecological advantages•Better slave security•Easier transport to Europe•Became the most valuable colonies

for each state!• Impacts

Soil depletionVast increase in Afro-origin

population

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Characteristics of plantation ag•Old world plants and techniques

•Requires huge land holdings – discourages small holders

•Cheap labor needed•Absentee owners or few local owners•Uses best land•Settlement is at plantation not cities•Cultural/spatial/class dualism •Economy is wholly export and

dependent on world market•“mining” of resources (soils and

timber) => impoverished local areas

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African slavery in Brazil and Caribbean•Characteristics

•Chronology•Geography

BrazilSpanish AmericaCaribbean

•Totals•African origins•Decline of slavery after 1800•Consequences of plantation/slave

agriculture

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Sugar & Slaves1500s – 1700s

~ 4.3 million Africans transported as slaves

To Brazil

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Sugar & Slaves in the Caribbean

~ 1.8 m slaves to Spanish colonies~ 1.7 m slaves to French colonies~ 2.9 m slaves to English colonies

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SLAVERY IN THE AMERICASBRAZIL ~ 4.3 million

SPANISH AMERICA50% to Cuba (900 k)20% to Mexico (360 k)10% to Venezuela (180 k)20% Columbia, Panama, Ecuador

~ 1.8 million

FRENCH AMERICAMostly to Martinique & Haiti

~ 1.7 million

ENGLISH AMERICA40% to Jamaica (1.2 m)22% to North America (640 k)20% to Barbados (580 k)13% other Caribbean (377 k)

~ 2.9 million

Totals are approximate and probably are underestimates. (nearly 5 m to small Caribbean islands)

~ 10.7 million

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SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS 1492- 1880

•1492 - 1600 ~ 1% of all slaves transported~ 40% of slaves in this period to

Brazil; 60% to the Spanish coloniesearly period slave transport ~ 125k

•1600 - 1700 ~ 14% of all slaves transportedtotals transported about 1.3m~ 40% to Brazil, 20% to Spanish

colonies, 38% to N European Caribbean

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SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS 1492- 1880 II

•1700 – 1810 (peak of slave trade)~ 64% of all slaves transportedtotals ~ 6 millionNorth America ~ 6%, British Caribbean

~ 23%, Spanish America ~ 9%, French Caribbean ~ 22%, Brazil ~ 31%, Dutch and Danish Caribbean the rest

•1810 – 1870~ 20% of all slaves transportedtotals ~ 1.9mBrazil 60%, French Caribbean ~ 5%,

Spanish America ~ 32%

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Consequences of the sugar/slave system

•Altered racial makeup

• Influenced settlement patterns in Brazil and Caribbean

• Influenced labor and social relationships

• Influenced land tenure systems: latifundia vs “mini-fundia”

•Degraded environment and lost resources

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Non-sugar Economy of Colonial Brazil

•Tobacco & Cattle

•Non-sugar south—Sâo Paulo and slave raiding

•Gold Rush at Minas Gerais in late 1600s/early 1700s

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Sugar & Slaves1500s – 1700s

Minas Gerais

Later SettlementCattle & Tobacco

Paulista or BandeiranteIndian Slave raids

Rio de Janeiro Sâo Paulo

Colonial Brazilian Economies

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Overview of Brazil 1500 — 1800

•Little lasting development: 2 boom/bust cycles; sugar and gold

•Much environmental destruction

•Set pattern of social values: beef; latifundia

•Mixed races with large African component (Black in N; Brown in Center; White in S)

•Pop mostly still coastal – 40% in NE; 30% in Minas