Brazil History

The scientists emphasize that the oldest traces of human life in the Amazon region can be seen on the territory between Santarem and Belem. By the time the Portuguese arrived there were more than 1 thousand tribes. In 1549 the king Tomé de Sousa became the first governor of Brazil. Thirty years after Brazil’s discovery the king divided the Brazilian coast into 15 captaincies. Brazil’s capital was the city of Salvador untill 1763, when Rio de Janeiro was founded. The economy of the country developed thanks to the sugarcane. So, the Portuguese started enslaving their neighbors for work on the sugarcane plantations. Sooner or later resistance to slavery took many forms. There appeared the Republic of Palmares, which survived through much of the 17th century, was home to many slaves. It should be said that Treaty of Tordesillas divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. The boundary ran north-south from roughly the mouth of the Amazon to what is now Santa Catarina. Land to the east became Portuguese territory; land to the west fell under Spanish control. But the line was imaginary. Brazil’s borders remained in flux until as late as 1930.