Brazilians have extremely diverse origins. Their culture is therefore a fascinating mix of influences, but this makes it rather challenging to write a concise description of the people of Brazil. I will give an overview of their history and relationship with the land, focusing on the communities living along the Mata Atlântica Bike Route in the South and Southeast of the country.
At least 10,000 years ago, and possibly much earlier, humans first reached what is today Brazil. Their ancestors most likely left Asia via the Bering land bridge. While there is no precolonial written record, archeologists have shed some light on the history of the region before the arrival of Europeans. In the north of the country, the Serra da Capivara National Park protects some of the oldest cave paintings and archeological remains in the Americas. On Marajó Island, next to the Amazon Delta, there is evidence, including sophisticated pottery, of a pre-contact society that was both complex and populous. In coastal regions and along some rivers, especially in the South and Southeast, shell mounds, known as sambaquis, left by the country's first inhabitants are still visible today.
By the 16th century, the coast of the Southeast was populated mainly by speakers of Tupi languages (a branch of the Tupi-Guarani family), like the Tupinambás, Tupiniquins and Temiminós. Non-Tupi people, notably the Goytacazes, Puri and Guaianás, also lived in the region, especially in the hinterland. In the South, there were Guarani speakers on the coast, called Carijós by the Portuguese, and deep inland, where speakers of Jê languages, like the Kaingang and Xokleng, were also found.
While some groups shared cultural similarities, they also engaged in conflict with each other. They sometimes allied with Europeans or formed alliances among themselves, such as the Tamoio Confederation, created by the Tupinambás and other groups to resist the Portuguese. They hunted and fished, but they also practiced migratory agriculture and cultivated crops native to the Americas, such as manioc, which is still a staple of Brazilian cuisine.
The level of social organization in Brazil was not as complex as that of the Andean civilizations to the west, but a network of trails, known as the Caminho do Peabiru, linked the southern Brazilian coast to the Andes. It was the path taken by a Portuguese castaway to reach the Inca Empire in the early 16th century, making him the first European to do so.
When the first Europeans arrived, they had to use the knowledge and labor of the Indigenous people to explore and exploit the land. During the colonial era, Tupi creole languages, known as lingua geral, were widely spoken as a lingua franca, even by colonists. One version, known as Nheengatu, has survived in the far north of the country. Indigenous culture and customs, such as cannibalism, fascinated Europeans and inspired the myth of the noble savage.
Infectious diseases, wars, slavery and forced assimilation decimated the native population. The process started on the coast and progressively penetrated the hinterland. The remoteness and harshness of the Amazon Basin temporarily protected some groups. But illegal mining, logging and cattle ranching have led to deforestation and further encroachment on native lands. Indigenous people officially account for a bit less than 1% of the country's population today, and the number is even smaller in the South and Southeast. They now live in dispersed territories, sometimes recognized by the state, which occupy a tiny fraction of their original homelands.
Despite that, a large proportion of Brazilians have partial native ancestry. Indigenous influence is seen in many aspects of the country's culture: toponyms, vocabulary, cuisine and much more. In a movement known as Indianism, Brazilian artists used Indigenous heroes and themes to help create a national identity, especially in the 19th century. FUNAI was founded in the 1960s as a government agency to protect Indigenous interests. The 1988 Constitution recognizes the rights of Indigenous people to their lands and customs. Legal battles are ongoing to enforce them. After a decline in the 20th century, Indigenous population is rebounding.
Today, Guarani communities are found in the foothills of the Serra do Mar and in the South, both near the coast and inland, especially toward the Argentinian and Paraguayan borders. Kaingang and Xokleng communities are present in the interior of the South.
See this map of current Indigenous land claims and officially recognized territories.
At the dawn of the 16th century, European sailors, mainly Portuguese, started exploring the Brazilian coast. Many were looking for gold, but they discovered a different source of wealth. They found in abundance a tree called brazilwood, or pau-brasil in Portuguese, which eventually gave the country its name. It was highly valued for its unique color and the red dye it produced.
The Portuguese settled to exploit this new resource and export it to Europe. The early colonists were only present in small numbers. They needed laborers and started enslaving Indigenous people. The first settlers were almost exclusively men. The children they had with Indigenous women were historically known as mamelucos or caboclos. Today, the term caiçara is used for the traditional inhabitants of the coast of the Southeast, who descend from European, Indigenous and African ancestors.
On the coast of São Paulo, the Portuguese founded São Vicente, officially the first city in Brazil and today part of the Santos metropolitan area. To the south, Cananéia was founded around the same time. But years before the creation of these cities, shipwrecked sailors and exiled convicts (known as degredados) had settled in the region, where they sometimes started living with Indigenous people and, in certain cases, became leaders, amassed slaves and founded large families. Their knowledge of local geography, customs and languages made them instrumental in setting up the first colonies, but they also got involved in conflicts among Europeans and Indigenous people. Some of the first settlers of the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa and Brazil were New Christians (forcibly converted Iberian Jews and their descendants) fleeing persecution or seeking new opportunities.
Other European powers vied for control of the region. The French were briefly present in the Guanabara Bay and were allied with the Indigenous Tamoio Confederation, but they were expelled by the Portuguese, who founded Rio de Janeiro to control the area. To the southwest, the Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically demarcated the border between the Portuguese and Spanish empires. Settlers of both countries fought in the small-scale conflict known at the Iguape War. The South of Brazil and the Platine region remained sparsely populated in the late colonial era, but multiple wars were fought there between the two Iberian powers. The modern-day borders would only be determined by a series of post-independence wars.
To colonize the new lands, the Portuguese divided the coast into hereditary captaincies. After gaining experience in sugarcane cultivation on their Atlantic island possessions, they introduced the crop to Brazil. The Northeast became the main center of production, but the coast of the Southeast, and later the Paraíba Valley, also started producing sugar.
From São Vicente, the Portuguese advanced inland past the Serra do Mar to found São Paulo. The latter remained a small city during the colonial era, but it served as the base for settlers known as bandeirantes to launch expeditions deep inland in search of slaves and precious minerals. They explored large swaths of modern Brazil. They often had children with Indigenous women, and many bandeirantes were themselves of mixed origins. The people living in the interior of São Paulo and neighboring regions came to be referred to as caipiras. The term caipira is still used today to refer to their traditional rural culture.
Christian missionaries started evangelizing the Indigenous people. Jesuits studied the Old Tupi language and played a role in the foundation of both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The religious orders created aldeias, where they could sedentarize, convert and culturally assimilate the natives, but also attempt to protect them from slave raiders. Spanish Jesuits coming from the Río de la Plata were the most successful. They gathered the Guaranis in large settlements known as reductions. Their initial missions in the region of Guayrá (today inland Paraná) were abandoned after repeated attacks by bandeirantes. They then focused on establishing new locations downstream along the Paraná River in what is today Argentina and Paraguay, but also near the Uruguay River in Brazil. The Jesuits were operating almost independently, and they were eventually expelled by the Iberian monarchies, who wanted to centralize and consolidate their control over the region.
While modest amounts of gold had previously been found in the Ribeira Valley and around Paranaguá, the late 17th century saw bandeirantes discovering large quantities in what is today the landlocked state of Minas Gerais. Later, diamonds were also found there. The ensuing gold rush completely reoriented the colonial economy. Huge numbers of settlers and slaves arrived. Roads were built to connect the mines with the coast for export. The original path, now known as Caminho Velho, ended in the port of Paraty. Later, a new one, the Caminho Novo, was built to end in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which grew in importance and became the colonial capital.
The port cities of Paranaguá and São Francisco do Sul were founded in the 17th century, but European presence in the South was minimal outside of the Jesuits inland and the few settlers on the coast, notably Azoreans in Santa Catarina. The region later became a source of mules that were essential to the transport of gold and other goods between Minas Gerais and the outside world. Tropeiros established routes to lead mule trains from Rio Grande do Sul to São Paulo. In the large natural pastures of the South, cattle ranching developed for the production of leather and jerky. The horsemen tending the cattle in Rio Grande do Sul were known as gauchos, which is still the name used to refer to the state's inhabitants today. It highlights their cultural similarities with neighboring Uruguay and Argentina, such as the consumption of chimarrão, a drink made from the local mate plant.
As the Portuguese explored the coast of West Africa, they started trading for slaves, which they sent to Europe and their Atlantic island possessions. In Brazil, the Portuguese enslaved Indigenous people, whose population dwindled due to violence and epidemics. African slaves were then brought to work on sugar plantations in the Americas. Africans had numerous advantages compared to the natives: they did not know the land they were brought to, which made escaping more difficult, they had better immunity against infectious diseases, and they often came from societies that already practiced sedentary agriculture.
From early on, slaves were obtained from the coast of West Africa, but eventually most came from Angola and the Congo Basin. They provided the main workforce for the major economic production cycles that would define Brazilian history: sugar, gold and coffee. They also worked in other types of agriculture, in cattle ranching and in urban centers. The transatlantic passage and working conditions were brutal, so mortality was high and life expectancy was low.
Enslaved women predominantly worked in domestic labor and at the market, but also in prostitution. They sometimes became concubines or common-law wives of their master, and commonly bore their children. The lighter-skinned mulatos and Brazilian-born slaves in general had higher rates of manumission and better social mobility.
Some slaves engaged in passive resistance. Others managed to escape and founded their own communities known as quilombos, the largest and most famous being Palmares (in present-day Alagoas), which resisted multiple Portuguese military expeditions before falling. Many smaller quilombos, founded by fugitive or freed slaves, survived to this day throughout the country. In the late colonial era and soon after independence, there were a few slave revolts, mainly in Bahia, such as the Malê Revolt. The slaveholding society tried to cultivate division among slaves to prevent large-scale rebellions.
A few freed slaves made their way back to Africa along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea (in present-day Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana). Others were deported there after rebelling. They often kept their Portuguese names and formed influential communities. Brazilian slave traders also established themselves in the region, sometimes playing an important role in local politics, as would some of their descendants.
Overall, more than four million African slaves were sent to Brazil, which surpasses any other country or colony in the Americas. Over time, manumission became more common. Years after independence, the Atlantic slave trade was banned. The Law of the Free Womb was later passed. In 1888, Brazil finally abolished slavery, the last country in the Americas to do so. By then, abolition was supported by different sectors of society, as slavery was seen as less efficient than wage labor and simply inadequate for the new industrial realities.
Racist thought led to the policy of branqueamento ("whitening"), the promotion of European immigration to dilute the black population. Because of the high degree of miscegenation and the lack of legally codified segregation in Brazil, some scholars and laypeople have promoted the myth of "racial democracy" to deny the reality of racism in the country. Black Brazilians have organized politically and fought for their rights, but progress has been slow. There are longstanding anti-racism and anti-discrimination laws, and the 1988 Constitution enshrines these principles. Despite that, there is still systemic inequality and prejudice. However, the last years have seen more discussion of these issues in the media, and affirmative action policies have been implemented under the government of the Workers' Party.
In the last Brazilian census, about 10% of the population identified as pretos ("black"), which is a term usually reserved for the darkest skin tones. Meanwhile, 45% identified as pardos ("brown"), which is used to describe individuals of any mixed origins, including European and Indigenous, but most have partial African ancestry. The rest mainly identified as white (43%).
Afro-Brazilian culture still has distinctive features, but it also permeated the wider culture of the country and contributed to create the modern Brazilian identity. Some blacks, as well as non-blacks, practice religions like Candomblé that blend traditional African religions with Catholicism. Afro-Brazilians have also created art forms, such as samba and capoeira, that are seen internationally as representative of Brazil.
See this map of current quilombos.
In 1807, French troops invaded Portugal. This prompted the Portuguese royal court to move to Rio de Janeiro, further contributing to the growth of the city and altering its character. The Liberal Revolution of 1820 in Portugal forced the royal family to return to Lisbon. The status of Brazil was raised to that of a constituent kingdom, and the king's eldest son became its prince regent. The Cortes in Lisbon attempted to revert Brazil to the status of colony and repatriate the prince regent, which led him to declare independence in 1822. A Brazilian Army was formed with local soldiers and foreign mercenaries. The Portuguese garrisons were defeated, and the Brazilian Empire was established as a constitutional monarchy.
The early Empire was plagued by internal conflicts: popular rebellions, republican uprisings, separatist movements and military revolts. By the middle of the century, the country had stabilized. It attracted immigrants, grew economically and began the process of industrialization. In Rio, the emperor established federal control over some of the hills surrounding the city to reforest them. This was one of the first efforts to protect the Atlantic Forest and would eventually become the Tijuca National Park. In the mountains north of the city, Petrópolis was built as a summer imperial residence with opulent palaces. On the international stage, the country triumphed over its neighbors in a series of wars and disputes to establish its modern borders. Although the imperial family enjoyed popular support, it lacked confidence in its own prospects for survival. Discontent among the armed forces, who were influenced by positivist ideas, and among large landowners, who resented the recent abolition of slavery, set the stage for regime change. A military coup, facing little resistance, established the First Brazilian Republic in 1889.
After independence, large-scale coffee cultivation started in the Paraíba Valley and then moved west in the state of São Paulo. The expansion of coffee production was associated with massive deforestation of the Atlantic Forest. Coffee became the country's main export and Brazil turned into the world's largest producer. It generated significant wealth, and the workforce had to be increased to keep the industry growing. A large number of slaves were moved from the Northeast of the country to the Southeast. As slavery was progressively abolished, the government started to encourage immigration from Europe. It had already attracted a small number of non-Portuguese Europeans, even before independence, such as the Swiss settlers founding Nova Friburgo in the state of Rio de Janeiro. But the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century saw millions of Europeans immigrating to Brazil, mainly from Portugal, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Portuguese immigrants predominated in Rio, while Italians were more numerous in São Paulo. Non-European immigrants also arrived to Brazil, including a significant number of Lebanese and Syrians, mainly Christians. An even greater number of Japanese moved to Brazil. Many went to the coffee plantations, but the government also encouraged their settlement around Registro in the underdeveloped Ribeira Valley, where rice and later bananas were cultivated. Some white southerners from the United States, called Confederados, moved to inland São Paulo after the defeat of the Confederacy. To the south, Paraná received an important contingent of Slavic immigrants. Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul mainly attracted Italians and Germans to settle the interior. Rural isolation has allowed them to preserve their regional dialects for generations, but government suppression and then modern telecommunications have reduced the number of speakers significantly.
While most of the newcomers initially established themselves in rural areas, many eventually moved to urban centers. The city of São Paulo, especially, became a magnet for immigrants and started growing at a fast pace. Railroads were built to connect the coffee-producing regions to the city and then south to the port of Santos for export. The wealth generated by coffee contributed to the industrialization of São Paulo, the creation of factories and the birth of a significant urban working class.
The new republic became dominated by the agrarian oligarchy of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The system was nicknamed café com leite politics, for the predominant industry of each state (coffee and dairy). The regime failed to represent large sectors of society, such as poor peasants, disaffected military personnel, the growing urban population and landed oligarchs outside of the two most powerful states. This led to multiple rebellions and conflicts. Some rebels looked toward the past for solace, resisting modernization efforts, such as urban and sanitary reforms, and rallying around messianic leaders and millenarian cults, sometimes with monarchist tendencies. Others looked forward, and the new ideologies of communism and anarchism gained ground in the cities. The Wall Street crash of 1929 led to a fall in coffee prices and contributed to the weakening of the regime. In 1930, politicians and oligarchs from peripheral states led a coup with the support of the military and established a new government.
The new regime had used liberal and populist rhetoric to take power, but initially ruled mostly by decree. The state of São Paulo, in reaction to losing influence and autonomy, started the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 against the federal government. The uprising was defeated militarily, but some of its demands were met in an attempt to appease the state's elite, including the promulgation of a mostly liberal Constitution in 1934. It would be short-lived. The central government veered toward authoritarianism and, after a self coup in 1937, established the Estado Novo regime through a new dictatorial Constitution.
The government centralized power and censored the press. It co-opted the integralists (a Brazilian fascist movement) and then crushed them. It suppressed the communists and attempted to control the urban working class through repression but also labor reform and mediation with capital. It promoted nationalism and enacted interventionist economic policies to stimulate the growth of local industry. Despite its authoritarian regime, Brazil fought on the side of the Allies during World War II. After the end of the war, pressure for democratization grew. The military became dissatisfied with the government and restored democracy in 1945.
The subsequent period of democracy saw a continuation of some features of the Estado Novo, such as its populism and economic nationalism, exemplified by the creation of state-owned enterprises. To develop the country, especially the interior, the state financed large infrastructure projects, such as the construction of Brasília as a new capital in the center of the country. Political crises plagued the nation. Labor and peasant movements agitated for reforms, which the government considered enacting. To prevent their implementation, military officers, supported by conservative elements and the United States, launched a coup and established a military dictatorship in 1964.
The country suffered from high inflation before the coup, but years of import substitution industrialization had contributed to economic growth and the creation of a substantial manufacturing sector. The military regime enacted policies to stabilize the economy and to promote exports. It also financed large infrastructure projects to develop remote regions, such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway, and to produce energy, such as the Itaipu Dam and the Angra dos Reis Nuclear Power Plant. The middle years of the military government saw greater economic growth.
However, economic development was uneven. It was mainly concentrated in the Southeast and the South. Other regions remained poorer with a lower level of industrialization. The Northeast, for example, had been important economically in colonial times, but later failed to modernize its economy. It had historically been dependent on the export of a few commodities prone to wide price fluctuations. It also suffered from recurrent droughts. The central government was either neglectful or incompetent at promoting growth there. Meanwhile, local society was unequal and politicians were generally more preoccupied with power than development. This situation led to a large-scale migration of people from the Northeast (nordestinos) to more prosperous large cities, especially São Paulo and Rio. They brought with them their unique culture.
Throughout the country, large-scale internal migration occurred from rural areas to cities. This, combined with natural growth, caused a rapid increase of the urban population. São Paulo grew to be the most populous metropolitan area in South America and the one with the largest economy. Many newcomers to the cities established themselves in informal settlements known as favelas, which starkly highlight the inequality of Brazilian society. The uncontrolled urbanization has provided a fertile ground for criminal organizations. Brazil became a hub for drug trafficking, especially cocaine, to Europe (sometimes via Africa) and North America. The country now suffers from high rates of violent crimes.
The military dictatorship tortured and killed dissidents. Left-wing revolutionary groups fought against the regime in rural and urban guerilla warfare. However, they failed to gather sufficient popular support and were defeated. Before its demise, the dictatorship attempted a slow political opening to set the stage for democratization. The last years of the regime were plagued by economic stagnation, high inflation and crippling debt. Broad sectors of the civil society coalesced into an opposition movement known as Diretas Já, which asked for direct presidential elections. They organized large protests in cities across the country. Democracy was restored in 1985 when elections were held between civilian candidates and won by the opposition.
The transition was formalized with the promulgation of a new Constitution in 1988. The document is progressive in many regards. It sets the basis for a democratic state and the protection of political rights. It also enshrines principles of social welfare, land reform, environmental protection and minority rights, including for Indigenous people and quilombolas. However, application of the law in the real world is uneven. The legal system can be inefficient, and access is unequal.
The new republic inherited the economic woes of the dictatorship, which culminated in hyperinflation. The government implemented multiple unsuccessful measures to solve the crisis, including the privatization of state enterprises and the confiscation of personal savings. The Plano Real was launched in 1993 as a macroeconomic stabilization plan that created a new currency and finally succeeded in curbing inflation.
In 2002, the country elected the Workers' Party, which had been founded during the dictatorship by different left-wing groups. Prominent among them was the labor movement of the ABC region in the south of Greater São Paulo, an important industrial hub, especially for car manufacturing. However, at the time of their electoral victory, the manufacturing sector was already in decline, due to the economic crisis that started in the 80s and the neoliberal reforms of the 90s.
To get elected, the party had to pivot to the center and appeal to a larger voter base. To govern, it had to work with other parties, many self-interested and with poorly defined ideologies, collectively known as the Centrão. The political system of Brazil is still often characterized by clientelism, cronyism and logrolling. This makes it difficult to properly address the country's longstanding structural problems, such as corruption, inequality and violent crime.
Despite suffering from premature deindustrialization and an increased reliance on imported manufactured goods, Brazil kept some protectionist trade policies. In the 2000s, the economy grew thanks to rising commodity prices worldwide, driven largely by demand from emerging markets. The country increased its exports of iron ore, oil (produced offshore) and agricultural products (mainly soy, but also meat, sugar and coffee). China became its most important trade partner. The growth instilled a climate of hope. It also helped the government implement welfare programs to lift millions out of poverty, such as Bolsa Familia, which consists of direct cash transfers to poor families.
The commodity boom ended in the 2010s as prices fell. The ensuing economic crisis contributed to the downfall of the Workers' Party government. It also led to a national malaise, marked by increased polarization and the rise of right-wing populism. Since the second half of the 20th century, Evangelical churches have attracted millions of converts, and they now play an important political role in supporting conservative causes. Another powerful supporter of the right wing is the agribusiness sector, which has grown as the economy shifted from manufacturing to export of commodities. The sector has generally opposed efforts to protect the environment and to restrict deforestation.
In 2022, the Workers' Party narrowly won the presidential election and returned to power. After inauguration, a mob of far-right rioters unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the president by storming government buildings in Brasília. Among the population, there is now a widespread lack of confidence in the country's ability to withstand the challenges of the 21st century and to resolve its structural problems, which often stem from colonial times. Observers have described pessimism among Brazilians, but also a sense of collective inferiority known as the vira-lata complex (referring to the colloquial name of the ubiquitous mixed-breed street dogs). Brazil has an incredibly vibrant and diverse culture, and it is rich in natural resources, but there is certainly an impression among many that the country has yet to reach its full potential.
Fausto's A Concise History of Brazil and Skidmore's Brazil: Five Centuries of Change are the two most popular conventional one-volume histories of the country available in English.