The year 1492 was marked by the clash between two different worlds, on the one hand, European culture, and on the other, indigenous culture. It is the beginning of the colonization of America, promoted mainly by the Portuguese and Spaniards in their quest for wealth and conquests. Another important symbolic date for history is 1494, when the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed.
O Treaty of Tordesillas it was a political agreement between the Iberian countries, Portugal and Spain, to make official the division of the new found continent. The treaty defined as an imaginary line a demarcation on the meridian located 370 leagues west of the island of Cape Verde. The lands located to the east would belong to the Portuguese and the lands to the west would belong to the Spaniards.
In 1500, Portuguese ships anchored off the Brazilian coast, initiating what historians have called the Portuguese America. The period corresponding to the first thirty years (1500-1530) of the Portuguese expeditions in Brazil was called Pre-Colonial Period, that is, it was a time when Portugal was still investigating the riches of this “new world".
After that moment, in the expedition under the leadership of Martin Afonso de Souza, in 1530, the Portuguese decided to make official the Brazilian colonization for fear of losing territory to other European countries and for the prospect of discovering wealth and obtaining profits. One of the ways to secure the Brazilian territory was to populate it, for this, the king of Portugal, in 1534, created the so-called hereditary captaincies. These captaincies represented large swaths of land under the power of donor captains who had the objective of distributing them to generate settlements and, of course, profits to the crown.
However, this type of government with a donor captain for each strip of land did not work and the control of the colony was in the hands of Tomé de Souza, the first governor-general of Brazil, from 1548. His function was to control the captaincies and practice land grants. The lands, therefore, had no financial value, as they were distributed and not sold.
During the political course of Brazilian colonization, there was the period called the Iberian Union (1580 - 1640), in which the colony came under the control of Spain due to the problem of succession to the Portuguese throne. After the end of the Iberian Union, the Portuguese crown expelled the Spaniards and regained the monopoly of the colony.
The 18th century in the colony was marked by a strong agitation in the discoveries of gold mines, generating great enthusiasm on the part of the Portuguese. Several cities in Brazil emerged in search of gold, including Diamantina and Ouro Preto. Colonization lasted until the mid-nineteenth century, when on September 7th, 1822, Brazil achieved its independence, inaugurating the Imperial Period.
By Fabricio Santos
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/historia-brasil.htm
