Policies and Effects of Portuguese Colonisation in Brazil

Colonisation in Brazil

The essay will discuss how during the colonisation of Brazil, severe racial policies were implemented which continue to affect the nation today. The imposed racial ideals and division has been carried on into Brazil’s modern society, leading to socio inequality and racial discrimination of ethnic groups. This essay will be focussing brazil’s indigenous population also referred as the Native Indians and their colonial experience.

Racial Policies during Colonisation from 1500 to 1821

This paragraph will discuss how colonisers used racial hierarchy to oppress the indigenous people. Colonisers motivated by profit established racial policies which effectively justified their actions in treating the Indigenous population as slaves. Brazil was colonised by the Portuguese during the period between, 1500-1815. Brazil had several million inhabitants prior its discovery by the Portuguese. However, today Indigenous peoples makes a small minority as of 2000 (Buccifero 2017, page 1103). The arrival of the Portuguese triggered the implementation of a social hierarchy, for the colonisers to deprive benefit from. Unlike Spain in Mexico and Peru, Brazil did not have an established civilisation for the Portuguese to plunder from, instead the indigenous population was dispersed. In 1534, the King of Portugal, John III of Portugal made the decree to colonise South America. This effectively allowed colonisers to use weapons and violence in bringing native Indians to fifteen autonomous and separate colonies. These where ruled by hereditary captain majors, creating a racial superiority between the Native Indians and the colonisers (Alden 1973). Colonisers invested major effort in ensuring the native population was under Portugal control to confirm control over South America. This was done through depriving the Native Indians of their identity and forcing on the idea of “White superiority”. The justification behind such actions is that colonisers where only enforcing the idea that “slaveholding mentality…dark skin…provided a presumption of servitude” (Hamilton 2001). To the Portuguese the Indigenous population, are a group of “savages” that should be educated by a superior race to follow the Catholic Faith, in the purpose of maintain the privileges of the elite minority (Reichmann 1999). The hunger for profit grew as colonies developed, due to the lack of discovery of precious metals and minerals; the Portuguese turn to “cash crops”. Brazil’s agriculturally rich lands and ideal climate was then exploited, to produce mainly sugar and coffee. However, this cannot be possible if land was not effectively paired with a labour force. During the 16th century, the Portuguese taking advantage of the racial hierarchy they set up, used the Indigenous population as slaves, profiting from the benefit earnt in the fields or gold mines. When realising that it was inefficient to use the Indigenous Population as labourers namely due to the small population and lack of skill (Okediji 2004). The Portuguese settlers turn to the force migration of African slaves to Brazil. The indigenous population remained in servitude of the colonial settlers, however due to the preference of African Slaves over Native Indian labour lead to this minority to became increasingly pushed to the fringe of society. Where the Native Indians were effectively dispossessed of their lands and subjected to inequality of treatment including different punishments for crime such as torture that was not imposed to Europeans (Reichmann 1999). The racial policy of “darker skin” meant servitude under “white skin”; created a situation where the Native Brazilians became constant victims of genocide and racist policies. Hence making a smaller part of Brazil’s population (Hamilton 2001). The colonial experience has created a long-lasting hierarchy where the Indigenous population still live today facing low income, lack of education opportunities and discrimination.

Direct effects of racial policies during decolonisation 1821 to 1889

We can identify the severe impact of colonialism on the indigenous population even after Brazil gained Independence. Despite brazil undoing decolonisation, racial beliefs remained entrenched leading to continued discriminatory practise. On 7 September 1822, Prince Dom Pedro declared Brazil's independence from Portugal, founding the Empire of Brazil. The lives of the indigenous population remained similar to what they experience during colonisation. Where they continued to experience inequality and discrimination. By the end of the colonial period, it has been estimated that half the population were slaves (Alden 1973, page 179). During the period of decolonisation, no act was made by imperial family to close the gap between Portuguese Settlers and the Indigenous and African descent population. Instead the small privileged class of Brazil’s population continued to enjoy high incomes due to landownership concentrated among slave owners during the colonial period. Thus, creating an extremely unequal of property and income among the population. In 1888 the imperial family passed ‘the Golden law’ (Lei Aurea), making Brazil the last Christian country to abolish slavery. However, as argued by Hamilton (2001) no measures was taken to help both the Indigenous population and African descended citizens to be integrated back into society. The legacy years of exploitation during colonisation proved to have profound negative effects on Brazilian society, including deep social divides between privilege whites and the population freed from slavery. Which in show how social hierarchy set up in the colonial period proved to be long lasting. The abolition of slavery without compensation, caused the Indigenous population to remain as slaves on plantation or move to senzalas, urban hills (Hamilton 2001). The Indigenous population residing in rural Brazil especially faced large amounts of regional inequality due to the lack of infrastructure along with investment and their income from farming agricultural commodities. Such options contributed to widespread inequality experienced by the Indigenous population today, from lack of educational opportunity to lack to zero to none political representation after decolonisation.

Furthermore, even after the act of declaring independence and abolition of slavery, the Indigenous population remain victims of Brazil’s discriminatory practises. “In 1872, blacks numbered 6.1 million compared with 3.7 million whites” (Hamilton 2001), the abolition of slavery caused mass panic among the white elite ruling classes which was labelled as the “black stain”. Thus, the decolonisation period was marked by the “Brazilian Whitening Policy” public policies that aim to “purifying the nation’s racial stock” (Hamilton 2001). Part of the policy consisted of state subsidised European immigration to Brazil “in an attempt to ‘whiten’ the country and promulgate the idea of racial democracy” (Skidmore, 1974, 1999). The other half of the racial policy was to forcibly impose whitening ideals on the coloured population, including the Indigenous population who were told to “Marry white to improve the race”. Such government policies lead to the systematic discrimination of the indigenous population. Where, white immigrants were given preference over coloured people in jobs, housing and education. Therefore, such racial ideals have led to worsening less opportunities for the indigenous population and investment in where indigenous population are prevalent in modern Brazil.

Linking racial legacies and contemporary Brazil, period between 1950 to present

The racial hierarchy established during the colonial period is shown to have a direct impact on the inequality experienced by the Indigenous Population in Brazil. Including areas of opportunity, education and racial discrimination. As presented by Okediji (2004, page 204), the experience of colonisation lead to the whitening policy during the decolonisation period and eventually caused decades of miscegenation. Which has created a society which determines people’s social and economic status on their “colour continuum” (Kediri, 2004). Comparing with Brazil’s colonial past, we can see that there was a significant loss of Indigenous population. In the modern era of Brazil, even now the Indigenous population are struggling with a number of key issues. Including, income inequality and poverty. According to the CIA World FactBook, 21.4% of Brazil’s 196.6 million inhabitants live below the poverty line. More specifically the PNAD (Brazil’s National Household Survey 1988) reveals how the mean income for male white population is $48,079, compared to the brown population (Including the Indigenous population) of $52,376 (Reichmann 1999, page 67). This illustrates how the racial policies from the colonial period has permeated to modern Brazil, where the coloured population has significantly income – hinting towards income inequality and discrimination. Moreover, the indigenous population also experience lack of educational opportunities. The disparities in education opportunities can be closely link to the unequal distribution of income that continues to prevail in Brazil. Children from poorer families are more likely to drop out of school compared to children from wealthier households. Due to the Indigenous population earning lower incomes it is impeccable that children will therefore be more unlikely to finish of their schooling. Beside this fact, there is clearly a lack of access of education in rural areas where indigenous population reside. Nationally it is estimated that in 1982, 70 percent of all children in Brazil who have no access to education (Reichmann 1999, page 57). The lack of education for the Indigenous population illustrates how they have experienced disadvantages tied specifically to their “racial ascription”. Discriminatory attitude towards Indigenous population has persisted forms the colonial era. The Brazil’s 2010 national survey demonstrated Increased racial discrimination experienced by “Black and Brown Brazilians” (Brazil’s 2010 national survey).

So, Brazil’s experience of colonialism ultimately led to the creation of a social hierarchy, which continues to create inequalities for ethnic groups in modern Brazil. The systems put in place in the colonial era has come to influence the racial policies during the decolonisation period, which in turn continues to negatively impact the indigenous population today. The indigenous population’s colonial experience is a grim one, where today they are facing multiple issues relating to income equality, lack of educational opportunity and discrimination.

References

1. WADE, P. (2009). Race and Sex in Latin America, Pluto Press, London, New York
2. Alden, D. (1973). Colonial roots of modern Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.
3. Reichmann, R. (1999). Race in contemporary Brazil. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press.
4. Hamilton, CV 2001, Beyond racism : race and inequality in Brazil, South Africa, and the United States, Lynne Rienner Publishers.
5. Bucciferro, JR 2017. The economic geography of race in the New World: Brazil, 1500-2000, The Economic History Review, no. 4, viewed 25 March 2019.
6. Chilcote, RH 2014, Intellectuals and the search for national identity in twentieth-century Brazil, Cambridge University Press, viewed 28 March 2019, .
7. Okediji, TO 2004, ‘The Dynamics of Race, Ethnicity and Economic Development: The Brazilian Experience’, Journal of Socio-Economics, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 196–215, viewed 25 March 2019, .