9781422285817

Brazil

Tradition,Culture, and Daily Life MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD

John Perritano

Brazil

MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD Tradition,Culture, and Daily Life

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Brazil

Tradition,Culture, and Daily Life MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD

John Perritano

Mason Crest

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Copyright @ 2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3339-9 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3341-2 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8581-7

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcopy format(s) as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Perritano, John. Brazil / by John Perritano. pages cm. -- (Major nations in a global world: tradition, culture, and daily life) Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4222-3341-2 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4222-3339-9 (series) -- ISBN 978-1-4222-8581-7 (ebook) 1. Brazil--Juvenile literature. 2.  Brazil--Social life and customs--Juvenile literature. 3.  Brazil--Social conditions--1985---Juvenile literature. 4.  Brazil--Geography--Juvenile literature.  I. Title. F2517.P47 2015 981--dc23 2015005023

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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 History, Religion, and Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Family and Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Food and Drink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 School, Work, and Industry . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Arts and Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Cities, Towns, and the Countryside . . . . . . . . . 49 Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Series Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Photo Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6

Christ the Redeemer statue, outside Rio de Janeiro.

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: ITALY BRAZIL

INTRODUCTION B razil is a land of superlatives. It is the largest nation in South America and the fifth largest in the world in terms of both area and population. While most of Brazil’s people live along the Atlantic coast, many indigenous tribes thrive in the dense jungle just as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. Its cultures—a mix of indigenous, Portuguese, and African heritage—bring a vibrancy to daily life in the city streets and rural outposts. The country is home to the planet’s second largest river, the Ama- zon, whose rain forest—the largest in the world—carpets 1.4 billion acres (470 million hectares) of land. The country has so many plants and ani- mals that it is difficult to count all the species. Scientists are finding new ones all the time. Brazil is also rich in natural resources, including gold, oil, and natural gas. Along with the wealth in natural resources, however, come threats to the country’s environmental riches. In the last 40 years or so, for instance, nearly 20 percent of the rain forest has been destroyed to make room for large farms. Yet, Brazil is a country of immense beauty, a wonder of the world, a trea- sure to be cherished.

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FAMILY AND FRIENDS INTRODUCTION

The church of São Francisco de Assis in the state of Minas Gerais.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

aristocrats : members of the nobility or the highest social class. codification : making official and legal. descendants : those who descend from an ancestor. environs : surrounding areas. exploit : to use or develop something in order to gain a benefit. indigenous : originating or living in a region or country. moniker : nickname or special title.

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CHAPTER

Title H story, Religion, and Tradition K ing Manuel I of Portugal was very fond of Pedro Álvares Cabral. Cabral and his father, Fernao, had served the throne very well. In return for this loyalty, the king bestowed on Pedro Cabral various titles, including “Counselor to his Highness.” It was no small moniker and showed the immense pride the king had in the younger Cabral. The king also showered upon Cabral a hefty allowance. So it didn’t come as a shock to anyone when King Manuel asked Cabral to lead an expedition of thirteen ships to India. At the time, Portugal was small, but its kings were determined to make the country—and themselves, of course—rich. They outfitted trading ves- sels with large cannons more powerful than the guns on the ships of other

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CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY, RELIGION, AND TRADITION

nations. Portuguese trading ships were often commanded by men of wide- eyed courage and violence, many of whom were aristocrats . They seized ports and forts along the route to India and China. Cabral most certainly fit the mold of the rough-and-tumble sea captain and adventurer. On March 9, 1500, the navigator set sail from Lisbon to India taking a different route than his countryman, Vasco da Gama, had taken a few years before. Da Gama sailed around Africa but told Cabral he should sail southwest to bypass the calm waters of the Gulf of Guinea, off the west African coast. Cabral did as he was told and on April 22, he spotted land that he named the “Island of the True Cross,” an area in the northeast region of what would become Brazil. Cabral spent only ten days in the area, continuing to his orig- inal destination, India, on a journey that was wracked by bad luck, including the loss of four ships. Although Cabral had discovered a new land, the Portuguese ignored the region for thirty or so years. Portugal was more interested in India and other Asian lands. However, several other European nations eyed Brazil and threatened to take it by force. The Portuguese were also cash-strapped and needed the reve- nue a New World colony might bring. Consequently, the Portuguese paid more attention to the region Cabral had earlier discovered. Traders from Portugal found

The landing of Cabral in 1500 in Porto Seguro in present-day Brazil, in a painting by Oscar Pereira da Silva (1865–1939).

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL

a species of tree there, with wood the color of hot coals— brasa in Portuguese. They called the trees “brazilwoods,” a term that gave the country its name. The Tupinamba Indians, one of many indigenous tribes in Bra- zil, were the first to meet the colonists, who sought to establish permanent settlements and monopolize the lucrative trade of the brazilwood. The wood was highly prized as an ingredient for mak- ing dye. The first Portuguese built settlements along the coast and began harvesting the valuable wood. At first, the Indians and European settlers worked well together. However, they cut down too many stands of brazilwood along the coast and had to push farther inland to satisfy their need. The far- ther into the wilderness the colonists roamed, the more expensive it became to cut down the trees. The Portuguese looked for another product to exploit . They found it in sugar. At the time, Europe loved sugar, although only a few people could afford the treat they called “white gold.” The climate of Brazil and its environs was well suited for the cultivation of sugarcane. To grow and harvest the crop, the Euro- peans created a plantation system that relied on slave labor. Brazil soon became the center of the sugar trade and Portugal the world’s largest supplier to Europe. By 1612, Brazil was producing more than 19.8 million pounds (9 million kg) of sugar a year. INDIGENOUS RIGHTS Today, one of the most pressing issues for Brazil is indigenous rights, especially those concerning property. In 1988, the Brazilian Constitution recognized the rights of native tribes to pursue their traditional ways of life and to take possession of “traditional lands.” Despite its codification in law, the mining, logging, ranching, and farming interests continue to pose a major threat to those living in the Amazon. Settlers are illegally taking tribal land, sometimes violently. To grow and process sugarcane, the Portuguese had no qualms about enslaving Brazil’s Indians. The slaves, however, were not used to toiling long hours in the brutal sun. Many died in the fields or were stricken with diseases

A Tupinamba Indian, illustrated by Albert Eckhout (1643).

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CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY, RELIGION, AND TRADITION

brought over by the Europeans. Many natives fled inland to escape the horrors of the plantations. Eventually the Por- tuguese replaced the native slaves with slaves from Africa. Portugal would rule Brazil for more than 300 years, imbuing the country with its language and its religion—Catholicism. Although few Portuguese traveled inland, Jesuit missionaries, whose mission was to Domingos Jorge Velho, a famous bandeirante , in a painting by Benedito Calixto (1902).

“save” the souls of the natives, traveled well beyond the coast converting the Indi- ans to Christianity. That is why most Brazilians today are Roman Catholic. In fact, Brazil has one of the largest Roman Catholic populations in the world. Still, Brazil- ians practice a variety of religions, including Buddhism, Judaism, and candomblé, a form of Catholicism practiced by Brazilians of African descent. The priests were not the only ones moving into Brazil’s interior. Also mov- ing inland were the much-feared bandeirantes , a group of fortune hunters and explorers who searched for resources to exploit and people to enslave. Some 200 years after Cabral arrived in Brazil, groups of bandeirantes traveled to the rugged mountain ranges west of Rio de Janeiro and found gold. The Brazilian gold rush was on and Brazil’s population boomed. Settlers moved away from the coast and thousands of Portuguese set sail from the mother country. New settlements sprung up in the gold-rich inland areas of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, and Mato Grosso do Sul. In response, the Portuguese government ordered that miners had to pay the crown one-fifth of all gold taken from Brazil. The gold, and later diamonds and other gems, allowed the financially strapped Portuguese government to pay off its considerable debts after wars with Spain and the Netherlands sank the country in a mountain of debt. Brazilian miners exported about 30,000 pounds of gold a year to Portugal. By the late 1700s and early 1800s, all the gold that could be found was harvested.

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL

COFFEE CRAZE Coffee eventually replaced sugar as Brazil’s primary export. The plant, originally from Ethiopia, came to Brazil early in the 1700s. As it was with sugarcane, Brazil’s climate was perfect for coffee cultivation. Coffee plantations sprung up around the coast, and the plant replaced sugar by the 1830s as the most dominant cash crop in Brazil. By 1850, coffee represented 50 percent of all Brazilian exports. Farming now became Brazil’s major occupation. By this time, the descen- dants of the first Portuguese settlers considered themselves Brazilian and wanted to break free of Portuguese rule. However, in 1808, the French emperor Napoleon invaded Portugal. Portugal’s king, Dom João VI, fled to Brazil, set- tling in Rio de Janeiro, which was now the center of the Portuguese Empire. Big changes were in store. Dom João undertook massive building projects. He invested in the arts and opened Brazil’s ports to other nations. When Dom João returned home in 1821, he left his son Dom Pedro in charge. In an abrupt policy shift from his father, Dom Pedro declared Brazil an independent nation. Dom Pedro ruled for nine years. His son, Dom Pedro II, became the emperor of Brazil at the age of fourteen. During Dom Pedro II’s reign, Brazil grew richer.

The eighteenth-century colonial palace, Paco Imperial, in Rio de Janeiro, was used as a dispatch house by King João VI of Portugal, then by Pedro I, emperor of Brazil.

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CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY, RELIGION, AND TRADITION

Companies built railroads and rubber flowed from the Amazon jungle. The country’s economy still depended on cheap labor provided by slaves. When slavery was abolished in 1888, wealthy landowners and slaveholders wanted to overthrow the government, and by 1891, the Republic of Brazil was founded, complete with a new constitution. POWER OF A PRINCESS Dom Pedro II’s daughter, Princess Isabel, was the person responsible for ending slavery in 1888. Isabel was the last ruler of Brazil’s empire. The moneyed landowners were so furious with her that they forced Isabel and her family back to Portugal and created a new government. Brazil’s Second Republic was established in 1946 and lasted until 1964, when discontent with the left-leaning government brought a military dicta- torship to power. In 1989, the first free elections since 1960, in which Brazilians could vote directly for their president, were held. Today, democratic institutions continue to flourish, and while the coun- try is still challenged by deep-seated poverty throughout wide swathes of its population, it is thriving as one of the most dynamic developing countries of the world.

Princess Isabel (1828–1877), responsible for ending slavery in Brazil.

An open mass on May 17, 1888, commemorated the abolition of slavery. Princess Isabel and her husband are under the canopy on the left.

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