Introduction and Background The discovery and settlement in the Americas began with European commercial expansion (Taylor

13). Many slaves were imported from Africa and brought over to work in the Americas (Mann). Slaves comprised of one of the major imports during the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries (Herring 133). Because of the high sugar prices, more people settled on the land and slaves were brought in to work on sugar plantations (Taylor 13). The sugar and gold industries boomed with the increase in slave labor. Overall, Brazil had small human and military resources. Yet it also had the largest slave population with a higher proportion of overall slave population on the continent combined. At the end of the Brazilian colonial period there were close to 1.1 million slaves. But over time, five million African captives were brought to Brazil to be slaves (Mann). There are three themes that influence Brazil's development as a slave-based society: 1) the amount of participation in production by slave workers, 2) the tradition of emancipation before the abolition and 3) the amount of diversity in a slave-based society (Baronov 117). Overall, Brazil relied heavily on slave production and had the highest slave population, the duration of the slave trade was long, and there was a great amount of time between the ending of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery (Baronov 117). Brazil was the last country in the hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888, but the end of slavery did not mean the end of discrimination (Mann). The abolition of slavery affected the development of Brazil socially, economically, and politically. Social Impact Capoeira is a form of a martial arts and dance that originated from Africa (Capoeira). Rebels escaped from Recife to the mountains and they established Pal Mares (Capoeira). According to police records, capoeira was developed in the early 1800s (Capoeira). Since the journey from Africa to South America was fairly short and many Africans were imported to Brazil, the slave population was easily replaceable (as compared to the United States) (PBS.org). Because of the easier importing abilities, the treatment of slaves in Brazil was terrible. In comparison, slaves were treated better in the United States (PBS.org). Since many masters acted harshly toward slaves, a method of selfdefense needed to be established. But because doing so would be illegal, slaves disguised capoeira, a martial art, as a dance.

This shows how African culture thrived in the Brazilian environment. This martial arts style of dance is still prominent today and the culture of the slaves remains in tact. Economic Impact To this day, Brail remains a prized land with many resources. The soil there is uncultivated and contains much wealth (Zweig and James 80). Beneath the surface of the land, lays metals and minerals that still have not been completely utilized by the people (Zweig and James 80). The Brazilian leaders intended to create a diverse working class based on a variety of labor forms based on race (Baronov 117).

Quilombos and Deforestation Also, during the 1960s, military rulers in Brazil wanted to open up the Amazon Basin because they believed that it was Brazil's destiny (Mann). Land speculators came in and the whole matter grew into a classic real estate bubble (Mann). Anyone found on the land that they wanted to develop was deemed a squatter and they were forced, mostly at gunpoint, to leave (Mann). During this time many quilombos were erased, but there were some that survived. There is thought to be around 5000 remaining quilombos to this day (Mann). Around the 1970s, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest began. Chico Mendes People like Chico Mendes, the equivalent of the American, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke out about the importance of the rainforest and the rights of the quilombolas (Mann). He gave a speech on December 6, 1988, during a seminar organized by the University of Sao Paulo. His goal was to protect the Amazon rainforest against development. Mendes's insight and his legacy is valued by environmentalists who want to protect the rainforest from mass development and deforestation. Mendes was murdered two months after the declaration of democracy by a rancher-hired assassin, which made his last words of his speech a bad omen (Chico). In the 1980s, geologists discoveries bauxite or aluminum ore and kaolin or fine clay used to coat paper, in a watershed where quilombolas lived (Mann). The state distributed land as if no one occupied it and licensed it to mining companies (Mann). Political Impact Laws made by the Brazilian government both harmed and helped the

people left over from slave holding times. In 1850, it was illegal to import slaves (Taylor 58). The importing of slaves beans illegal mostly because of the British, who wanted to end slave imports worldwide. This came at a time when the cost if slaves were increasing because promising industries like cotton and coffee were going up, which drew free laborers into the area. There was also an expansion in the Paraiba Valley in Rio de Janeiro (Taylor 59). Although the importing of slaves was now illegal, prohibited Black Gold was smuggled into Brazil (Geipel). In 1871, the government passed the law of free birth, which freed born slaves (Taylor 58). Then in 1885, the government passed the Law of Sexagenarians, which permitted slaves to be freed on their 60th birthday (Taylor 58). In May of 1888, the emperor was away and Princess Isabel made a new cabinet under the Pernambuco Conservative and inquired for the parliament to abolish slavery with no compensation to their owners (Taylor 58). This was also referred to as the Golden Law and represented the interest of the landowners. The abolition assisted with the undermining of the emperor (Taylor 58). And in October 1988, Brazil turned democratic with a new constitution. This constitution claims, "The legitimate owners of the lands they occupy, for which the State shall issue the respective title deeds." Many people were angered by this and said that the quilombolas were false people who were actually squatters that claimed to be something that they were not, in order to keep their land. Because of this, there was a clear resentment between the different groups of people against the quilombolas (Mann). President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ruled in November 2003 that a quilombolas was any community that identified itself as a quilombolas and had "African ancestry related to a history of resistance to historical oppression." After this ruling, 1,700 quilombos were recognized (Mann).