_A Glance at Brazilian History_
If geographical extent, length of seaboard, variety of resources, number
of cities, constitute the importance of a country, then Brazil may
fairly claim to be the most important State in South America.
It is 2600 miles from north to south, and 2500 miles from east to west,
and has a seaboard extending for 3700 miles. In square mileage it is
exceeded only by the British Empire, Russia, China, and the United
States. It occupies 33 per cent of the whole continent of South America,
for it contains within its borders 3,291,416 square miles. It is the
proud boast of Brazilian authors that their country is in one sense the
most remarkable on the globe, because it is peopled by a single nation,
and not by a heterogeneous medley of races, a contention which is
perhaps not strictly justified, for even in Brazil many different
nationalities go to swell its population, which is quite small for the
tremendous area it occupies. To-day it does not contain more than
eighteen or nineteen millions of inhabitants. Each year sees an
increasing emigration to it, and the nationalities of the new-comers are
over thirty in number. Some become naturalised, many refrain from
bothering about a formality which bestows few advantages and many
obligations. The Brazilian people is made up of three distinct races,
Europeans mostly of Latin origin, indigenous Indians and negroes
imported from Africa. These different races have mixed and bred, and to
some extent have intermarried, and the numerous half-breeds which now
inhabit the country are the result. Half whites and half Indians are
called “Caboclos,” white and Indian “Mameluco,” white and negro
“Mulattos,” the descendants of Mulatto parents “Cascos.” The
full-blooded negro is termed “Creolo,” the cross between them and the
Indians
[Illustration]
“Carboreto.” These are only a few of the many results of these strange
alliances, for there are hundreds of variations resulting from further
matrimonial complications. Yet the Brazilian claims them all as
comprising one nation. Further, there are to-day many strong and settled
colonies of Germans, Italians, and Spaniards in different localities,
particularly in the south, which are at present entirely free from the
admixture of the diverse strains that run all through the central and
northern States. All over Brazil pure negroes still exist, as well as
undiluted Indians, and they have the same rights and privileges as their
lighter-skinned neighbours, and mix with them with a freedom that is
scarcely found in any other country. There is no colour question in
Brazil, no antagonism as in the United States of the north, and it seems
extremely likely that the merging of the diverse races will go on
uninterruptedly until a new type is evolved. When one looks back and
considers the problems that confronted the mere handful of adventurous
Portuguese pioneers who first settled upon this vast continent, it does
not seem at all remarkable that they should have mingled with the races
they found and with the slave women they imported. The rough adventurers
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries went out to seek their
fortunes in wild countries, and they would hesitate to take their
womenfolk, even if the latter were not loath to go. This led to their
alliances with native and foreign races, and to the population which was
destined to hold, if not to develop, the vast country which lay around
them. The negro, who has a reputation for laziness, has not transmitted
to his descendants any remarkable qualities for activity, unless it be
the irrepressible emotionalism which is characteristic of many of the
inhabitants of Brazil. Nor has the Indian who for such long ages lived
in the most primeval fashion transmitted much initiative. So that what
there is of activity and progress in the race to-day must come from the
Portuguese and other European ancestry. It is an interesting study, full
of suggestion, this of pedigree, even if the student is unsuccessful in
arriving at any definite conclusion. The resources of the country are
enormous, diverse, and practically inexhaustible, but they have been
lying for all the ages hardly touched and generally inadequately worked.
The mixed inhabitants are settled upon lands which shelve down from the
mountains to the Atlantic coast, or along the banks of the mighty
rivers which flow through the impenetrable forests out to sea. There are
vast districts of virgin forest and trackless wild where white man has
never penetrated, and where the aboriginal Indian is just as savage and
untamed as were his ancestors upwards of four centuries ago when
European mariners first landed on their shores. Brazil, as we know it
to-day, or at least the civilised portion of it, was created by
Portugal, and it was one of the distinguished sons of that little nation
who had the honour of being its discoverer. In the year 1500 Pedro
Alvarez Cabral, sailing from Lisbon ostensibly to make an all-sea voyage
to India, diverted his course off the Cape of Good Hope and sailed to
the south-west. Forty-two days after leaving Portugal the eyes of the
adventurous seaman rested upon Mount Paschoal in the State of Bahia.
[Illustration: BEAUTIES AT PERNAMBUCO.]
The event was momentous and the hour propitious, for everything favoured
Portuguese expansion. The independence of the little kingdom was an
accomplished fact, and the possibility of absorption of it by Spain was
a remote contingency. The Moors, driven out of the Iberian Peninsula and
hurled back to their native Africa, were no longer a menace. In addition
to this the Portuguese were quick to perceive that a new era was dawning
upon the world, and they were determined to have a hand in the shaping
and controlling the future destinies of the newly discovered continent.
The conquest and colonisation of Brazil were a national corollary to the
earlier discoveries of Portuguese navigators. Cabral, with his
companions, was at first inclined to believe that they had struck upon
another island similar to those recently discovered in the Caribbean
seas by their Spanish rivals, and he christened it, after the fashion of
the period, “The Island of the True Cross,” and it was only when the
geographical error was realised that the name was altered to Brazil.
This name had been used long before, for a western island of the Azores
was named “De Brazi,” being derived from the red dye woods which grow so
plentifully in tropical latitudes.
[Illustration: NEAR RIO.]
Following immediately upon the discovery of “Brazil” by Cabral and the
nominal possession of it by the Crown of Portugal, expeditions were
sent, and in two of these the celebrated Amerigo Vespucci took part. He
built a fort at Cape Frio, and was so struck by the loveliness of the
surrounding country that he thought he was in the region of an earthly
paradise. Voyagers on their way to the Indies began to touch upon the
Brazilian coast, and it soon became explored by navigators of different
nationalities. Portugal, jealous of her rights, had to protect it from
the traders of France, who were beginning to have dealings with the
natives upon its shores, and in 1527 a post was established for the
protection of Portuguese interests. This fort or garrison at Pernambuco
was the scene of one or two raids by both French and English seamen,
and which hastened the Portuguese Crown to take serious steps to occupy
the new territory in a more imposing manner. In 1531 Martin Affonso,
with a fleet and about 300 colonists, landed at Pernambuco, and coasted
down in the Bay of Rio, and to the mouth of the bay where Santos now
stands. On behalf of the Crown he divided the land out into sections,
running from the coast into the interior indefinitely, and these were
granted to nobles of the Court, who were so unsuccessful in developing
their concessions that they were allowed to revert to the Crown. The
Portuguese, unlike their Spanish rivals, made no great expeditions into
the hinterland of their new colony, and were slow to bring the Indians
under their rule. The vastness of the country, and the ease with which
the natives could withdraw from the invaders, made it necessary for the
governors who were planted up and down the coast to have recourse to the
importation of negro slaves from Africa to the northern provinces.
Gradually the traders made journeys into the interior, generally along
the rivers, to trade with natives, and villages took root; but the
greater part of the population settled upon the coasts in such towns as
Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio, Espirito Santo, São Paulo, etc.
Of course there were rapacious traders who tried to exact too much from
the natives, but a salutary check against their tyranny was soon
provided by the Jesuits. These enthusiastic and energetic followers of
Loyola have left a deep and abiding mark on nearly all the South
American communities. They built churches, founded schools, and taught
the Indians the arts of agriculture, and all that they asked in return
was obedience and conformity with the rites of the Church. The
“Paulistas,” as the lay settlers were termed, saw in Jesuit influence an
obstacle to their own domination over the supply of native labour, and
conflicts between the religious and secular powers lasted for more than
a century, the mother country sometimes siding with one faction and
sometimes with the other. But the priests persisted with that zeal which
is the traditional mark of their order, and suffered persecution,
privation, and even death, rather than relinquish their mission.
Vestiges of their work are still to be found in many parts of Brazil and
neighbouring States, notably in the place-names, which are often derived
from the saints, symbols, and sacraments of the Church.
In the welter of South American politics Brazil has suffered those
frequent changes of government which have been the fate of every
republic existing in the sub-continent to-day. The first European
country to contest the claim of Portugal to this vast territory was
France. But although an island in the Bay of Rio was occupied by some
French troops in 1515, the danger of permanent French rule was never a
strong probability, and it was not long before the invaders were
dislodged. A more serious phase of its history was when, in the year
1581, Philip II of Spain united the two kingdoms in the Peninsula, and
the affairs of the Brazilian colony were directed from headquarters at
Madrid.
It was the Dutch who next had a shot for the prize of supremacy in
Brazil, and a very successful shot it was. Spain had by this time passed
the zenith of her prosperity, and was “hasting to her setting.” Holland
was becoming a predominant maritime power in Europe, and her companies
and adventurers were resolutely determined to establish empires both in
the Orient and the Western Hemisphere, and some of the settlements which
they founded in those vigorous years own allegiance to the Dutch flag
to-day.
Holland sent her best sailors to Brazil, and for a time it looked as if
the dominion not only of Spain but of Portugal also was ended in that
quarter of the globe. For a time the Dutch were practically complete
masters of many of the principal provinces. But the Brazilians had a
spirit of their own, and never at any time showed a disposition to
submit tamely to the encroachments of the Dutch. When the successful
revolution in Portugal threw off the Spanish domination in 1640, and the
Duke of Braganza was proclaimed King of Portugal, under the title of Dom
João IV, and was recognised as the rightful sovereign to all the
Portuguese possessions not under Dutch control, an armistice was signed
between Holland and Portugal. But that did not affect the Brazilians
overmuch; they continued their strenuous attempts to get rid of the
Dutch. The people of Maranhão rose in revolt in 1642, and the
Pernambucans followed suit in 1645. The battles that followed were
adverse to the Dutch arms, and finally the commander, General van
Schoppe, had to capitulate, all the fortresses still occupied by the
Dutch being turned over to the King of Portugal.
It is perhaps as well for both countries that Holland had to relax her
hold, for the Brazilians were separated from their Dutch conquerors by
the differences of language, and the still more vital differences of
religion. Protestantism is not understood in the South American
republics, and therefore any attempts by Holland to make the Brazilians
conform to the tenets of the Reformed Church could only have ended in
signal failure. The fierce Latin spirit was well manifested by the great
leader of the Brazilian revolt, Juan Fernandez Vievia, when at the
battle of Tabocas he urged his troops against the alien invaders with
the words, “Portuguese! At the heretics! God is with us!”
[Illustration: THE RAILWAY UP TO CORCOVADA.]
Out of this victorious struggle with the Dutch, Brazil emerged a nation,
though it was not for some time yet that she was to forswear the
suzerainty of Portugal and declare her own autonomy.
The next stage in her variegated history is a quiet one. During the
remainder of the seventeenth and the whole of the eighteenth century the
connection with Portugal was maintained undisturbed, and the period of
calm was occupied by the colonists to penetrate farther and farther
into the interior, spreading agriculture, increasing existing crops and
raising new ones.
[Illustration: COMING DOWN FROM CORCOVADA.]
A big development came during the early years of the nineteenth century.
The Napoleonic wars had caused all kinds of disruptions and
complications, and naturally Portugal, which was in the thick of the
struggle, could not escape them. The Prince Regent, Dom João VI, began
to find Lisbon too hot to hold him, and he transferred the Court to Rio
de Janeiro in 1808. The Brazilians received him well, but his reign
there was not happy. When affairs in the home country became more quiet
the monarch’s counsellors in Lisbon urged his return, and with that
request he complied, his son, Dom Pedro, remaining at Rio as Prince
Regent. Signs were abundantly evident that the spirit of nationhood had
established itself very firmly in the hearts of the Brazilian people,
and that they were not prepared to brook interference from the Court in
Lisbon, which was constantly acting in a high-handed and arbitrary
manner. Many national leaders of eminence arose, and it was not long
before a declaration of independence was made, and Portugal did little
or nothing to prevent the severance. But Dom Pedro, who, whatever his
faults may have been, had a national resilience of mind, determined to
stop with the reformers, and his reward came when he was promoted to the
headship of the State under the imposing title of Emperor.
A digression may be made here touching the strain of insanity which
characterised this particular Royal line. One action of Dom João’s is
almost as incredible as it is gruesome. He ordered that his mother, who
had started her career by marrying her uncle and ended it in an asylum
in Brazil, should not be buried for six years.
If the body had been embalmed that would have been nothing unusual, but
the Portuguese law prescribes such treatment only for males of the Royal
house. When João found himself back in Lisbon he gave orders for his
mother’s body to be brought from Brazil and buried with state ceremony;
the Queen, be it noted, had been six years dead!
Here is an eye-witness’s account of the awful spectacle: “The next day
the Church of the Estrella overflowed with spectators, and the corpse
was exposed in full court dress, while the nobility came successively to
kiss the hand!... Two of the young princesses were appointed by the King
to the high honour of presiding, and four ladies-in-waiting performed
the enviable office of tire-women to the corpse. It had been brought
over from Brazil enclosed in three coffins, the inner one of lead, where
it was laid, surrounded by aromatic herbs, gems, and essences.... One of
the princesses fainted twice, and was too ill to reappear; but her
sister was obliged to remain, while the ladies raised the body and
completely reclothed it in a black robe, a dress cap, gloves, shoes, and
stockings, and adorned it with four splendid orders upon the heart.”
This throws a lurid light on the attitude still shown to the dead in
some Latin-American countries. The bodies of the rich are treated with
garish pomp; the bodies of the poor with shameful neglect, if not with
contumely.
[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF THE CANDELIERA, RIO.]
Dom Pedro I was a daring, dashing monarch, with mercurial blood running
in his veins. His attempts to establish absolutism irritated the
Brazilians, who had now advanced too far along the path of political
freedom to tolerate that sort of thing; so, in the struggle between
people and ruler, the ruler got the worst of it. In 1831, cowed by the
determined front which the troops and civilians presented, Pedro I
abdicated in favour of his infant son, Dom Pedro de Atcantara. His was a
curious type of character, and the most that can be said of him is that
he made a showy figure on the South American stage, where showy figures
have in the past been so abundant. His faults were not only political;
in his private life he was far from being a paragon.
Pedro II was only five years old when he succeeded to the throne of
Brazil, and for ten years the country was governed by a regency of three
members elected by the legislative chambers, and latterly by one chosen
by the electors. As might be surmised, things did not go smoothly, and
many risings, revolts, and intrigues embarrassed the Government, which,
however, was successful in quelling them for the time being. In 1840,
the King being fifteen years of age, he was declared to be of legal age,
and he started on his long and popular reign. Two political parties
represented the people, the Liberals and Conservatives, and alternately
they obtained the ascendancy and grasped the ruling power. The civil
wars which raged and distracted the country in the southern State of Rio
Grande were followed by the terrible struggle with Paraguay, which was
not concluded till 1872. The agitation for the abolition of the slave
trade in 1850 was but the precursor of the total abolition of slavery
itself nearly forty years afterwards. For years the voices of the
abolitionists were raised in the Houses of Congress, with the result
that first the trade was abolished (1857), next the declaration that
slave-born children were free (1871), and finally all slaves were given
their absolute liberty (1888). These drastic changes in the economical
conditions of labour in the country were not brought about without much
opposition. Great losses were incurred by the planters and
slave-owners,[3] who, bitterly opposed to the liberation, turned hostile
to the Emperor when he signed the decree, and opposed the claims they
urged for compensation. The loss of the support of this wealthy and
influential class was an important factor in the overthrow of the
monarchy. But the spirit of republicanism which had been engendered by
the French Revolution was growing in Brazil and two or three attempts
had already been made to establish free institutions in the country. The
Republican party had been organised for some years, and an opportunity
occurred, and the combination of the anti-monarchists brought about the
declaration of the republic in 1889. The feeble old Emperor recognised
the strength of the forces arrayed against him, and, powerless to resist
the trend of circumstances, he took his congé gracefully. In reply to
the communication of the Marshal Deodoro du Fonseca, which informed the
Emperor of the intention of the new republic and of his dismissal, he
wrote: “Yielding to the imperiousness of circumstances I have resolved
to set out with my family to-morrow for Europe, leaving this country so
dear to us all, and to which I have endeavoured to give constant proof
of my love during the nearly half a century in which I have discharged
the office of chief of State: while thus leaving with my whole family I
shall ever retain for Brazil the most heartfelt affection and ardent
good wishes for her prosperity.”
The new republic with Marshal Deodoro at its head soon got to work, and
a constitutional Assembly was organised to compile the constitution of
the republic. This was published in the early part of 1891, and in the
latter part of the same year the first President was obliged to resign
owing to the trouble that arose over his arbitrary unconstitutional
closing of the Congress. The army and navy were against the “dictator,”
and the States threatened revolt, and peace was only restored when the
Vice-President, Floriano Peixoto, took the Presidency. More conspiracies
and revolts followed in several of the States, and the navy openly
defied the Government, Admiral de Mello demanding the President’s
resignation and surrender. Rio and Nictheroy were in a state of siege,
and the army placed in positions to defend and keep open the entrance to
the harbours. Rio was bombarded, and general disorder prevailed, and
civil war raged all over the republic. The “Iron Marshal,” as Peixoto is
sometimes called, succeeded eventually in quelling the revolting
factors, and owing to the general desire he relinquished the reins of
office to Dr. Prudente de Morales, a President who was acceptable to all
classes, and who was elected without opposition in 1894. There have been
eight Presidents since the republic was inaugurated, and under each the
country, in spite of many internal dissensions, has made great strides.
Brazil is destined to assume in the future a far greater importance in
the comity of nations than it can boast at present. Its people have no
mean record behind them; they have shown a passion for independence and
an increasing capacity for government, which argues well for the
building up of that great edifice which is certain sooner or later to
arise in South America. That they are capable of military valour was
demonstrated many times over during the war with Paraguay. The chief
need of the country is population, and when the other States emulate the
example of São Paulo and invite and encourage emigration Brazil will
advance with more rapid strides to the great goal that awaits her.
[Illustration: THE FALLS OF TOMBOS IN THE STATE OF RIO.]