The History of the Indigenous People and European Colonization of Brazil

The country of Brazil is found on the large continent of South America. The country is the fifth-largest nation in the entire world and has an area that expands for 3,286,426 square miles. The shoreline alone stretches along for 4,600 miles. The climate in Brazil is mostly a subtropical one, however, the regions of the country that are the farthest south can be categorized instead as having a more temperate climate. While Brazil does not experience very many earthquakes or hurricanes, it has often suffered through severe droughts that have been made use by poor use of the land throughout the past few centuries. In the rural parts of Brazil, there are very few cities and towns that flourish or are comparable to the more developed coastline. This is especially true for the interior parts of the country in the west that are not connected to the coast by train. (Levine, 1999). Brazil is also home to an impressive amount of plant and animal life. The country is host to the Amazon rain forest, the largest forest in the world that covers 2.5 million square miles. The Amazon rain forest is the natural habitat for over ten percent of all the planets living species (Meade, 2010). However, the areas with higher elevation often have no shade and experience lots of heavy drought.

Before the Europeans first arrived in Brazil during the 16th century, Brazil was mostly home to three main indigenous groups of people. These groups were known as the Tupinamba, the Mundurucu, and the Yanomami (Meade, 2010). As suggested by archaeological evidence of ancient villages, these indigenous groups are believed to have been living in Brazil for somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 years before European colonists began to arrive (Waggoner, 2010). One theory posits that these early humans might have originated from the Baikal region of Siberia and then ended up in Brazil after crossing both the Bering Strait and the wide expanse of North America. Another possibility is that they originated in Polynesia, Australia, or Borneo (Levine, 1999). However, researchers are still not entirely sure where these people originally came from.

The Tupinambra tribes lived on the coast and were the main group of indigenous people. Many languages of the other tribes evolved from the Tupi language, which suggests these groups had a common origin before splitting into smaller tribes (Levine, 1999).They were known for their violent warfare and the warriors of this group were universally feared by the other groups inhabiting the areas. The Tupinambra regularly captured members of other Tupi groups and used them for cannibalistic purposes. The reason these people engaged in the practice of cannibalism was because they believed that consuming human flesh was a direct mechanism to absorb the spirits and wisdom of their ancestors (Meade, 2010). The Tupinamba were also adept at agriculture, and there is evidence that suggests they used some knowledge of the sun’s rotation and seasons to guide their planting.

Another group, the Mundurucu, were also associated with violence. They are thought to have migrated to the region near the Amazon River basin, known as Mato Grosso, about 500 years before the first Portuguese explorers arrived (Waggoner, 2010). Their community was ruled by someone known as the headman. The headman was a man who was appointed to lead for possessing keen abilities in both warfare and oratory. Oratory for the Mundurucu usually involved the communication of spiritual messages from the gods to the other villagers, so the headman was usually some kind of designated religious leader or shaman. One of the core beliefs of Mundurucu religion was that the balance in the universe could only be achieved and maintained by following a very strict system. This system required for them to settle scores with any rival villages. During these battles, the Mundurucu would take captives and then offer their heads as a sacrifice (Meade, 2010). They thought this was the only way to keep their religion balance against other religions.

Finally, the Yanomami resided in the Amazon Basin region and are considered the most well-known indigenous people of Brazil. There are still about 20,000 remaining members of this group alive today who continue to live in isolated Yanomami communities. When Europeans first arrived during the 16th century, the Yanomami were able to successfully avoid having any extensive contact with the European colonists which also let them escape the rapid European conquest. The Yanomami, including even those still living today, have assimilated very few components of European culture into their own and generally avoid having any contact with outsiders (Meade, 2010). Due to their lack of exposure to European epidemics, the current living population is still highly vulnerable to outbreaks of infectious disease.

Brazil was discovered by accident in the year 1500 by Peter Alvarez de Cabral, a Portuguese admiral, during a voyage to the East Indies. He landed along the coast in a place that he named Porto Seguro and then sent some of his men out to explore the country. They discovered that the soil in Brazil was very fertile and that the indigenous people who already inhabited the region were quite friendly (Grant, 2012). The Portuguese colonists only developed a small portion of the land near the coast, since it is very hard to reach the interior regions of Brazil since it has no rivers that run from east to west (Levine, 1999). Eventually the Indian population began to decrease due to slavery, Europeans quests for gold, and forced confinement in Catholic missions which facilitated the spread of many epidemic diseases (Caio, 1967). The struggle for territory between the Tupinamba and the Portuguese made the Tupinambra very vulnerable to attack, and their numbers significantly decreased during the ongoing wars from 1557 to 1572 (Meade, 2010). Portuguese control over Brazil helped make Portugal a leading power during the period of European exploration and colonization.

References

Grant, A. (2012). History of Brazil. London: Hard Press Editions.

Junior, C. (1967). The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Levine, R. (1999). The History of Brazil. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Meade, T. (2010). A Brief History of Brazil (2nd Edition ed.). New York: Infobase Publishing.

Waggoner, J. (2010). The Amazon of Brazil. Edison, N.J.: Hunter Publishing, Inc.