Brazil Research Paper Essay Example

The beginning of Brazils economy started when Portugal colonized the country that is known today as Brazil. The Portuguese were in search of vast riches and they got their first taste of earnings around the 1540’s. With the popularity of sugar cane growing in Europe, the Portuguese quickly started an agricultural enterprise in their colony. The Portuguese took advantage of the Dutch through their commercial skills and financing; in order to quickly get a foothold and build a small sugar monopoly. The financing from the Dutch allowed them to set up this whole sugar cane trade remarkably fast. Allowing the Dutch to also ship the sugar back to Europe made it one less risk the Portuguese had to worry about. The trading of sugar also impacted other parts of the Brazilian colony. A slave trade was set up along with the sugar trade; this was due to the need for labor on the sugar cane mills. Slavery in Brazil ended up lasting until 1888; Brazil was one of the last countries to abolish slavery. It is estimated that about 35% of slaves involved in the Atlantic slave trade ended up in Brazil (Brazil Equitable). Around the early seventeen century the sugar trade in Brazil began to decline due to the rise of sugar production from many other countries. Sugar has and always will be a main product in Brazil.

The search for gold and precious metals in colonial Brazil became a priority in the eighteenth century. After the sugar cane farming became less lucrative many people in Brazil looked for alternatives. This was when the discovery of gold in the mountains of Minas Gerais changed the entire dynamic of the Brazilian economy. Large numbers of Portuguese along with an estimated half a million slaves flocked to this mining region. It is thought that by 1725 about half of the population lived in
Minas Gerais. This was also a problem in the mother county of Portugal; they had to severely limit immigration to Minas Gerais due to the mass migration. It has also been speculated