Brazil’s historical periods have emerged from a long and complex period of struggles over national projects, marked by strong moments of instability.

Brazilian history does not have a clearly defined starting point.

Traditionally, however, the arrival of the Portuguese with Pedro Álvares Cabral in the coastal region of present-day Bahia on 22 April 1500 is considered to be the “discovery of Brazil”. This was the “discovery of Brazil”.

However, it should be stressed that this was the discovery of the Portuguese. Various ethnic groups inhabited the territory that became Brazil long before any Europeans landed there.

Brazil is the historical result of several different projects that took place within a specific geographical delimitation. First there was the project of conquest, then the project of colonisation, in the 19th century the project of empire and the constitution of a nation state, and finally the project of Brazil as a republic, which we are still trying to maintain today.

Our anthems, flags, coats of arms, emblems, slogans and everything that refers to our national identity refer to this construction.

To be patriotic is to be a supporter of a national project that often differs from other projects that are also under construction.

It would therefore be more accurate to describe the process of the arrival of the Portuguese as the invention of Brazil, followed by other projects.

Períodos Históricos do Brasil

Brazil’s historical periods

1. Pre-Cabral period (~ -1500)

Before the arrival of the Portuguese, different ethnic groups occupied the territory that would later become Brazil.

The Pre-Cabralino period, as the name suggests, refers to the history that preceded the contact between these peoples separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

For some time, the term “Brazilian prehistory” was used, but most historians and anthropologists no longer consider it appropriate.

History does not begin with the arrival of the Portuguese.

And although there is an argument that this expression preserves the notion that history is about written sources, from the mid-20th century to the present, historiography has developed a great deal with regard to methodologies that analyse other types of sources.

It is estimated that the first people inhabited the area that is now Brazil 60,000 years ago.

However, due to this enormous time span and the lack of any attempt to preserve their beginnings, much of the integrity of this history has been lost.

In this sense, one of the most studied pieces of evidence in Brazilian archaeology are the sambaquis, which are deposits of organic matter and limestone formed by human activity and which have undergone a process of fossilization over time.

They provide important information about the first populations that inhabited our territory between 2,000 and 8,000 years ago.

With the arrival of the Jesuits in the mid-16th century, a series of “grammatical works” were produced with the aim of standardising some of the “difficult languages” of the colony.

In the process, valuable knowledge of the indigenous languages of the period corresponding to the arrival of the Portuguese in America was catalogued.

It was discovered that there were four main linguistic groups: the Tupi-Guarani, the Caraíba, the Macro-Jê and the Arauaque.

From these linguistic trunks, as they are also called, a series of ethnic groups and linguistic variations have been derived, giving rise to the modern indigenous languages.

2. Pre-colonial period (1500-1530)

After 22 April 1500, when the Portuguese arrived in the Americas, these new, unknown lands did not immediately arouse much interest in the Crown.

At the time, the Portuguese Empire was focused on trade with the Indies, which had been in decline since the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, putting an end to the Byzantine Empire.

The French, on the other hand, did not take long to send ships to the South Atlantic at the beginning of the 16th century, as they had their eye on these new lands and challenged the Portuguese-Spanish division established by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

In 1555, they established a colony in Guanabara Bay, known as Antarctic France.

At this early stage, Portugal promoted the so-called exploratory expeditions to South America, with the aim of discovering and mapping the territory and establishing contact with the native Indians.

Until then, the main product extracted from these lands was a tree native to the Atlantic rainforest, known as brazilwood.

It’s interesting to note that the name Brazil predates the country itself.

As early as the 14th century, European maps attributed it to one or more islands, with various possible variants (Bracil, Brazille, Bersil, Braxili, etc.), “expressing a geographical horizon that was still mythical”, according to historian Laura de Mello e Souza. However, on 1 May 1500, Pero Vaz de Caminha referred to this land as Vera Cruz in a letter.

Later, other names were used, such as Terra dos Papagaios and Santa Cruz.

At the end of the pre-colonial period, in 1530, when Portugal sent expeditions to settle and establish a colonial administration, the name Estado do Brasil became official. If you want to know more about this period, read Pre-colonial period.

3. Colonial Period (1530-1815)

In 1530, Portugal sent Martim Afonso de Souza to lead a colonisation expedition. His mission was to fight the French smugglers who worried the crown, to establish some settlements in the coastal region and to search for precious metals.

To this end, Afonso de Souza was appointed Captain Major, which meant that he had to exercise civil and criminal justice, distribute sesmarias, claim land on behalf of the King and appoint officials for the colonial administration.

In 1532, the explorer was ordered by King João III to introduce the system of hereditary captains.

Under this system, the newly discovered territory was divided into 15 parcels, which formed 14 captainages, and the captains were appointed to be responsible for the administration of each one.

The system was introduced in 1534 (Martim Afonso de Souza himself became a grantee of the captaincy of São Vicente) and lasted until 1548, when the General Government was created with the aim of centralising the colonial administration of the entire territory.

It was also under the captaincy of São Vicente that Martim Afonso de Souza established the first sugar mill in the mid-16th century (which was to be the colony’s main export until the mid-17th century), inaugurating the sugar cycle.

The plantation system was the model for this type of production.

Large tracts of land were given to plantation owners who, with the fertility of the land, slave labour and the monoculture of sugar cane, became the main economic, social and political elite.

Initially, the Portuguese used indigenous slave labour.

However, under the pressure of the growing slave trade in the mid-16th century, black slavery became the largest source of labour, with Brazil receiving some 4.9 million African slaves by the 19th century, when the Eusébio de Queirós Act was passed in 1850.

The end of the sugar cycle was marked by the Dutch invasion and colonisation attempt.

The Dutch succeeded in establishing themselves in 1637, and until 1644 Count Maurício de Nassau ruled the region of Pernambuco, which also began to produce sugar. However, in 1645 the Portuguese, with the support of England, fought the Dutch again in what became known as the Pernambuco Uprising, until in 1654 they managed to re-establish the city of Olinda as a possession of the Portuguese crown.

From then on, the Dutch settled in Central America and began to compete with their sugar production, directly threatening the foreign trade of the Portuguese Empire.

As a result, the Dutch began to look for precious metals, until at the end of the 17th century, significant quantities were found in the region of the Captaincy of São Paulo, marking the beginning of the gold cycle.

The colonial period was also marked by a series of conflicts and uprisings, such as nativist and separatist rebellions.

Particularly from the end of the 17th century, the interests of a growing local elite and the Portuguese began to cause problems for the colonial administration.

In addition, the Portuguese royal family, threatened by a French invasion of Portugal, fled to Brazil, which in 1815 became the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve, with Rio de Janeiro as the seat of the kingdom’s administration. This movement marked the end of the colonial period.

From the end of the 18th century, the English, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies began to assert their independence.

Conflicts between the Brazilian Party, the name given to the political group that defended local interests, and the Portuguese became increasingly intense, culminating in the process of Brazilian independence in 1822.

For more details on this period, see Brasil Colônia.

4. Imperial period

The Imperial Period lasts from 1822, with the independence of Brazil, to 1889, with the proclamation of the Republic, and is divided into three main phases: the

• First Reign (1822-1831)
• Regency Period (1831-1840)
• Second reign (1840-1889)

Brazil had become the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1815, as a direct result of the transfer of the Court to Rio de Janeiro.

Other important measures were taken, such as the opening of the ports to friendly nations in 1808, the foundation of the Bank of Brazil in the same year, the treaties of 1810, the foundation of the Royal Library, the French Artistic Mission in 1816, and others.

It is estimated that between 25 and 27 November 1807, between 10,000 and 15,000 people set sail for Brazil.

Entire administrative structures were set up on the other side of the Atlantic.

From then on, Brazil underwent major changes. In politics, for example, there was an emancipation movement in the state of Pernambuco, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Known as the Pernambucanian Revolution, or Revolution of the Fathers, this uprising was severely repressed by the kingdom.

This and other conflicts during this period, together with the Liberal Revolution in Porto and the return of the Court to Portugal, were decisive in the process of Brazilian independence, which Portugal did not officially recognise until 1825, after receiving a large indemnity.

4.1 The first reign

The main icon of Brazilian independence was Pedro de Alcântara (the fourth son of King João VI), who became the first emperor of Brazil and took the nickname Pedro I of Brazil.

Unlike his father, Pedro I admired the ideals of the Enlightenment, defending liberal ideas such as the abolition of slavery and individual freedoms.

Flag of Imperial Brazil

The construction of national symbols is a fundamental part of a nation state. This was the case in Brazil after independence.

In this context, two informal political groups emerged in the struggle for power: the Portuguese Party, which brought together supporters of absolutism, a centralised and strong government, Portuguese merchants and, often, the restoration of Brazil as a colony of Portugal; and the Brazilian Party, made up of Brazilian merchants, landowners and slave owners, whose main objective was to defend and extend the rights and privileges they had gained.

In 1823, the National Constituent Assembly was set up, which produced the Political Constitution of the Brazilian Empire of 1824.

Although initially intended to limit the powers of the monarch in line with Enlightenment ideals, the Constitution of 1824 had a strongly authoritarian and centralising character, especially through the institution of the Moderating Power.

With the remnants of the Pernambuco Revolution still in the air, the Pernambucans once again revolted after the promulgation of the 1824 Constitution and its explicitly authoritarian character, and in July 1824 the separatist and republican Confederation of Ecuador broke out. Soon after, the empire became involved in the Cisplatine War, which made Pedro I even more unpopular.

In 1826, the death of the emperor’s father, João VI, created a succession problem in the Lusitanian monarchy.

Faced with this and his inability to calm tempers in Brazil, Pedro I abdicated the throne, leaving his son Pedro II, only five years old, as his successor.

However, the Constitution of 1824 itself stipulated that the emperor had to be at least 21 years old to take office.

It was therefore necessary to set up a Regency government, which ushered in a new phase of the Imperial period.

4.2 The Regency Period

The Regency period was marked by a series of constant conflicts with the central government, leading to successive periods of political instability, aggravated by the serious economic situation.

The political forces were basically divided into two strands: the Liberals and the Conservatives, with the latter having a greater political presence.

In an attempt to contain these rebellions, an additional law was passed in 1834 that revised important points of the 1824 constitution, including greater autonomy for the provinces.

But this was not enough. These rebellions included Revolt of the Males (1835), Cabanagem (1835-1840), Sabinada (1837-1838), Balaiada (1838-1841) and Revolt of the Farrapos (1835-1845).

In July 1840, on the initiative of the liberals, who put pressure on the Regency, the Majority Coup was carried out, in which Pedro II, only 14 years old, was proclaimed Emperor of Brazil.

It was an attempt by the liberals to gain a greater say in political decisions, as well as a way of containing the political unrest that was spreading throughout the country. Thus began the Second Regency (1840-1889).

4.3 The Second Reign

This period saw profound changes.

The economy of the Empire, which had been in serious difficulties since the gold cycle, found in the increase in coffee consumption abroad the possibility of increasing its exports and thus reducing its trade deficit.

The coffee cycle was born. This activity, which had already begun before the arrival of the Portuguese court, accelerated.

Economic power shifted from the north-east to the south-east of the country, where the coffee plantations were concentrated.

At the same time, the agricultural production system itself, the plantation, came under strong pressure, especially from the British, who demanded an end to the slave trade and, consequently, the abolition of slavery.

However, it was only with the enactment of abolitionist laws, starting in 1850 with the Eusébio de Queirós Law, that the fight against slavery began to be put into practice in Brazil.

Another important event, both for abolition and for the socio-political formation that gave rise to the movement to overthrow the Brazilian monarchy, was the Paraguayan War (1864-1870).

Slaves were sent to the battlefield, many of them forcibly, with the promise of freedom at the end of the conflict.

After the Brazilian victory and the huge debt incurred to finance the war, Pedro II was politically weakened, while the military began to occupy more space in the political debate.

They even led the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. If you want to delve deeper into this period of Brazilian history.

5. Republican period

The Brazilian Republic, the period in which the country is still in force, can be divided as follows

• First Republic/Old Republic (1889-1930)
• Provisional Government (1930-1934)
• Vargas Constitutional Government (1934-1937)
• New State (1937-1945)
• Fourth Republic (1945-1964)
• Military dictatorship (1964-1985)
• New Republic (1985 to date)

It is important to note that, despite the republican system, Brazil has historically had serious difficulties in maintaining a democratic regime.

During this period, six other constitutions were promulgated, two of which (the Estado Novo of 1937 and the military dictatorship of 1967) were highly authoritarian.

5.1 The First Republic

Right at the beginning of the Republic, during the presidency of Prudente de Morais, the first civilian to be elected by popular vote, one of the greatest armed conflicts of the period broke out, the causes of which are still unclear: the Canudos War (1896-1897).

This period of the First Republic was also marked by the alternation of power between the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, known as the café com leite policy.

This type of policy further contributed to the isolation of the other states of the federation and consolidated the hegemony of the southeast of the country.

5.2 Flag of the Brazilian Republic

The flag of the Brazilian Republic uses the colours of the imperial flag, with green representing the Braganza dynasty and yellow the Habsburg dynasty.

It wasn’t until 1930, with the civilian-military movement led by Getúlio Vargas, after Washington Luís’ victory in the national executive was challenged by the Liberal Alliance, that the 1930 revolution began.

Brazil then entered a new phase of the republic.

5.3 The Vargas era

The Vargas era (1930-1945) saw a realignment of political forces concentrated in the middle sectors of the urban centres.

This was also the period of the greatest industrial growth in Brazil’s history. It was also the time when the Consolidation of Labour Laws (CLT) was created on 1 May 1943, which, among other things, unified and extended workers’ rights.

However, it is important to stress that the Estado Novo was a dictatorship that persecuted political leaders, especially those linked to the Brazilian Communist Party, and at times allied itself with the fascist-inspired Brazilian Integralist Action, Lusitanian Integralism and the social doctrine of the Catholic Church.

At the same time, Vargas had strong capillaries in the workers’ movement and even managed to keep a tight control on the activities of the trade unions. For these reasons, Vargas is often described as a populist.

However, a well-established historiography on the subject identifies problems with this type of attribution, since it treats the mass of voters who supported him not because they were easily manipulated around a power project, but because a significant part of their demands were met by the executive.

In reality, Getúlio Vargas was a man of many nuances.

The entire era that bears his name in the history of the Brazilian Republic is divided into very different moments, in which he was on different sides of the political spectrum and met seemingly contradictory demands.

To this day, he remains the main political and historical reference point for Brazilian Labourism.

However, the tradition of labourism left by Vargas became a major political threat to the military and the forces of the National Democratic Unity (UDN), who wanted him to resign.

In the second half of the 1940s, a series of attempts were made to interfere with the fragile democracy that had recently been established after the end of the Estado Novo.

Vargas was elected by direct vote in 1950, took over the presidency in 1951 and, under pressure from the military, which was already threatening to stage a coup, committed suicide in the early hours of 24 August 1954.

Despite this act, which “delayed the coup”, the climate of political instability continued to grow. In 1961, when Vargas’s former Minister of Labour, João Goulart, then Vice-President of Brazil, was to take over the Presidency of the Republic following the resignation of Jânio Quadros, the military tried to stop him.

Leonel Brizola, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul at the time, promoted the campaign for legality and even took up arms to guarantee the inauguration of the new president.

Nevertheless, in April 1964, with the support of the United States of America, a military coup took place in Brazil, establishing a dictatorship that lasted 21 years.

5.4 Military dictatorship

During the military dictatorship, a number of achievements made under the 1946 Constitution during the brief period of the Fourth Republic were suspended through the enactment of institutional laws.

In 1968, AI-5, considered a coup within a coup, banned political meetings, imposed prior censorship on films, books, plays and television programmes, suspended habeas corpus, gave the president the right to dissolve the National Congress, among other things. This document institutionalised repression in the country.

This period also saw the emergence of important artistic movements that sided with the resistance to the regime, such as Cinema Nouveau and Tropicalismo, which revolutionised their respective fields in Brazil and have had an impact that continues to this day.

From 1974, the regime began a slow and gradual process of political opening, with the aim of transferring political power to civilians.

In 1985, the military handed over executive power.

Tancredo Neves was indirectly elected President of Brazil, but died of a general infection before taking office.

José Sarney, the vice-president, finally took over the presidency of Brazil in March 1985, ending the period of military dictatorship.

5.5 New Republic

Thus began the period of the New Republic.

This is the longest democratic period in our history, and its beginning was marked by the fight against hyperinflation and a foreign debt that increased 30-fold during the military governments.

There have been eight presidents, the first being Fernando Collor de Mello in 1989.

A new constitution was also promulgated in 1988, nicknamed the Citizens’ Constitution for its broad guarantee of access to public services.

Despite being the longest democratic period in Brazilian history, the New Republic has already seen two impeachment trials.

In a presidential regime, as has been the case in Brazil since it became a republic, the impeachment process must be carried out with many caveats, since the dynamics of the office of the president give it more powers than the office of the prime minister, as is the case in a parliamentary system.

Otherwise, the credibility of the democratic regime itself is at risk, as it is a political-legal process that minimises the power of the vote.

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