A Chronology of Brazilian History
1494: Portugal acquires the eastern portion of present-day Brazil by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
1500: The navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral sights Brazil and claims it for Portugal.
1532: Colonists led by Martim Afonso de Sousa found the first permanent settlement at São Vincente, near Santos. Brazilwood becomes profitable.
1538: The first cargo of African slaves arrive to work on sugar plantations.
1549: The new territory is brought under direct Portuguese control with the appointment of the first Governor General, Thomé de Sousa, at Bahia. With him arrive colonists and the first Jesuits in the New World.
1557-67: The French under Villegaignon occupy the harbor of Rio de Janeiro but are eventually driven out by the Portuguese who found a settlement there.
1580-1640: After King Sebastian of Portugal dies in Africa fighting the Moors, his Empire falls to Spain. Independence is restored under the House of Braganza.
1624-1654: The Dutch West India Company occupies the sugar-growing district of Pernambuco and remains there for thirty years. Enlightened government of Prince Maurice of Nassau. Franz Post and Albert Eckhout paint their meticulously accurate landscapes.
1693-1727: Gold and diamonds are discovered in the central provinces, hence Minas Gerais (general mines).
1759: The Jesuits are banned from Brazil.
1763: The capital is moved from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro.
c. 1770-1810: O Aleijadinho (the “Little Cripple”) carves the monumental figures for churches in Minas Gerais.
1789: A liberal conspiracy, inspired by the French Enlightenment and the American Revolution, is crushed in the State of Minas Gerais. Its leader, Tiradentes, is hanged and others are exiled to Portuguese Atrica.
1798-1808: Creative years of Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia, the “father of Brazilian music.”
1808: The Prince Regent, the future Joao VI of Portugal, and his court, escorted by the British fleet, take refuge in Brazil from the Napoleonic invasion. Liberal reforms and cultural development ensue.
1815: Brazil is elevated to equal status with Portugal and declared an integral part of the Monarchy.
1821: João VI returns to Portugal, leaving his son Pedro as Prince Regent.
1822: José Bonifacio de Andrade e Silva is the political Patriarch of Independence. Dom Pedro refuses to return to Portugal and proclaims the independence of Brazil September 7; crowned Emperor one month later.
1824: A qualifiedly liberal constitution grants Emperor Pedro I discretionary “ moderative ” power. A revolt of the northern provinces is quickly suppressed.
1825-30: Uruguay gains independence from Brazil.
1831: Pedro I is forced to abdicate in favor of his fiveyear-old son, Pedro II.
1841: Pedro II is crowned Emperor.
IS45: General Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, later Duke of Caxias, Brazil’s most revered soldier, brings peace to the rebellious central and southern provinces. A pattern is set for military support of constitutional formulas.
c. 1850: Coffee begins to dominate the economy.
1850: The Queiroz Law prohibits the further importation of Negro slaves and is completely enforced within the next three years.
1854: A railway starts operating between Rio de Janeiro and Petrópolis.
1864-70: Brazil with Argentina and Uruguay wins a costly and bloody war against Paraguay’s dictator Lopez.
1870: The Republican Party is formed. Carlos Gomes’ opera, Il Guarani, has its triumphant première at La Scala Theater in Milan.
1871: The Rio Branco Act. declares that all children horn of slave mothers are free.
1876: Pedro II opens the Philadelphia Centennial.
1885: Large-scale immigration begins, notably from Italy, for work in the coffee fields and industry.
1888: Princess Isabel, while the Emperor is in Europe, abolishes slavery without compensation to owners.
1889: Pedro II is deposed. Positivist theories of Auguste Comte fostered by Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães, mathematics professor in military college, inspire establishment of Republic. General Deodoro da Fonseca becomes President.
1891: The National Assembly promulgates a Constitution, largely the work of Ruy Barbosa, modeled on that of the United States.
1894: The first civilian President, Prudente José de Morals Barros, is elected to office.
1897: The classic novelist, Machado de Assis, becomes founder of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
1902: Euclides da Cunha publishes his epic of a politicoreligious uprising, Os Scrtões (Rebellion in the Backlands) .
1903: Acre Territory acquired from Bolivia for an indemnity and agreement to construct the MadeiraMamoré railroad.
1903-09: Dr. Oswaldo Cruz frees Rio of yellow fever.
1905: Joaquim Nabuco is appointed first Ambassador to the United States.
1917: Brazil declares war on Germany.
1922: São Paulo is rocked by “Modern Art Week,”sponsored by Brazil’s young artists and writers.
1929: The world collapse of the coffee market sets off financial and political disorders.
1930: After losing the presidential election, Getúlio Vargas is placed in power through the support of the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Minas Gerais.
1932: The State of Sao Paulo unsuccessfully revolts against the Vargas regime, in an effort to return to constitutional guarantees.
1934: A new Constitution is promulgated giving the central government greater power and providing advanced social legislation.
1937: Vargas sets: aside the 1934 Constitution and proclaims a more centralized “New State.”Work is begun on the Ministry of Education and Health Building in Rio de Janeiro.
1941: Brazil’s most renowned artist, Candido Portinari, paints murals for the Library of Congress.
1942: Brazil declares war on Italy and Germany.
1945: Vargas resigns under military pressure and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra is elected President. Heitor Villa-Lobos makes his first concert tour of the U.S.
1946: A new Constitution re-establishes bicameral legislation.
1950: Vargas is re-elected President.
1954: Following exposure of corruption in the government, President Vargas commits suicide August 24, and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
1955: Juscelino Kubitschek is elected President ot Brazil, to assume office January 31, 1956