Brazil Five Centuries of Change

by Skidmore, Thomas E.

• ISBN13: 9780195058093
• ISBN10: 0195058097
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

With a land mass larger than the continental United States, a unique culture that is part European, African, and indigenous, and the world's ninth largest economy, Brazil is one of the most important--yet one of the least understood--nations in the world. Thomas Skidmore, a preeminent authority on Brazil, vividly traces the 500 years of Brazil's development. Its epic story begins in the wake of Vasco da Gama's historic circumnavigation of the globe, when another Portuguese vessel, commanded by Pedro Alvares Cabral, ran aground on the coast of Brazil in April 1500. From there Skidmore probes Portugal's remarkable command of the vast country in the face of the advances of the Spanish, French, and Dutch colonial interests; Brazil's compromised independence in 1822; its evolution as the center of world coffee cultivation; and the creation of the republic in the late nineteenth century. Here also are examinations of its unique forms of modernist art and literature, the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas and the military coups, and the ambitious reforms of current President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Informed by the most recent scholarship available, Brazil explores the country's many blessings: ethnic diversity, a vibrant cultural life, and a wealth of natural resources. But, as Skidmore writes, the Brazilians must also grapple with a history of political instability and military rule, a deplorable environmental record, chronic inflation, and international debt. Mapping out its past as well as its future, this eloquent and detailed look at Brazil will be the standard history of the country for years to come.

Author Biography

Thomas E. Skidmore, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Brown University, is the author of Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought, The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil, 1964-1985 and, with Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, Fourth Edition (all available from Oxford University Press).

Table of Contents

List of Exhibits	ix	(2)
Acknowledgments	xi	(2)
Introduction: Why Read About Brazil?	xiii
Chapter 1 Birth and Growth of Colonial Brazil: 1500-1750	1	(28)
The Country the Portuguese Created in the New World	1	(18)
How Could the Portuguese Do It?	5	(3)
Securing the Frontiers	8	(2)
How the Portuguese Administered the Colony	10	(4)
The Peoples of Brazil	14	(5)
The Colonial Economy and Society	19	(7)
The Social Structure of the Portuguese New World	22	(1)
Miscegenation: Biological and Cultural	23	(2)
The Nature of the Colonial State and Church	25	(1)
The Beginnings of a Luso-Brazilian Culture	26	(3)
Chapter 2 Crisis of the Colonial System and Emergence of an Independent Brazil: 1750-1830	29	(14)
The Economics and Politics of Post-1750 Brazil	29	(6)
Tensions in the Late Eighteenth-Century Colony	31	(1)
Conspiracies Against the Portuguese	32	(3)
The Portuguese Court Comes to Brazil	35	(8)
Creating a New Portuguese America	36	(2)
Social Hierarchies	38	(1)
The New Monarchical System	39	(4)
Chapter 3 Revolt, Consolidation, and War: 1830-70	43	(22)
Uprisings Under the Regency	43	(3)
Recentralization	46	(3)
The Role of Pedro II	47	(2)
The Rise of Coffee	49	(3)
The Emerging Problems with Slavery as an Institution	52	(3)
The Question of Abolition	55	(3)
The Paraguayan War	58	(7)
Chapter 4 Making Brazil "Modern": 1870-1910	65	(28)
A New Generation and the Military Question	65	(2)
Abolition and Its Aftermath: The Brazilian Way	67	(6)
The End of the Empire	73	(9)
Selling Brazil	76	(1)
"Whitening" Brazil	77	(2)
The Reality Behind the Facade	79	(3)
Coffee Fluctuations, Emerging Industry, and Urban Labor	82	(11)
The Roots of Industrialization	84	(2)
Worker Organization and Employers' Strategy	86	(2)
Evaporation of the Oligarchical Consensus	88	(1)
A Message from Below	89	(1)
Economic Strains	89	(4)
Chapter 5 World War I, The Great Depression, and Dictatorship: 1910-45	93	(34)
The Shock of World War I	94	(2)
The Economy After the War	96	(4)
Brazil's Uneven Development	99	(1)
New Currents in the 1920s	100	(7)
Modernism, Brazilian Style	102	(1)
Rise of Anti-Liberal Thought	103	(2)
The Disintegration of the Old Politics	105	(2)
The Revolution of 1930	107	(6)
Swing Toward Centralization	108	(2)
Ideological Polarization	110	(3)
Getulio Vargas as Dictator	113	(14)
The Vargas Style	114	(1)
Corporatist Inroads	115	(2)
A New Search for National Identity	117	(2)
Juggling the International Options	119	(1)
World War II and the Rise of U.S. Influence	120	(4)
Collapse of the Dictatorship at Home	124	(3)
Chapter 6 Democracy Under Vargas, Halcyon Days with Kubitschek, and a Military Coup: 1945-64	127	(32)
The 1945 Election and the Dutra Period	128	(2)
Vargas Returns	130	(8)
From Oligarch to Populist	131	(2)
Vargas's Legislative Program Runs into Trouble	133	(2)
Suicide	135	(3)
A Socioeconomic Profile of Brazil in the Late 1940s and 1950s	138	(6)
Regional Disequilibria and Migration	139	(2)
Patterns of Urban and Rural Growth	141	(2)
Social Stratification	143	(1)
A New President, Juscelino Kubitschek, Elected	144	(5)
Political Strategy	145	(1)
The Economic Development Program	146	(2)
Dealing with the World Economy	148	(1)
The Brief Presidency of Janio Quadros	149	(2)
The Succession of Joao Goulart	151	(8)
Populists Versus the Military	152	(2)
The Economic Crisis Escalates	154	(5)
Chapter 7 Rule of the Military: 1964-85	159	(30)
The Generals Search for a Political Base	160	(4)
Growing Opposition, Growing Repression: 1964-67	162	(1)
Triumph of the Hard Line	163	(1)
The Arrival of the Guerrillas	164	(2)
Culture and the Generals	166	(11)
The Effects of Repression	173	(3)
Military Rule and Questions About Brazilian Political Culture	176	(1)
The Economic "Miracle" Wrought by the Authoritarians	177	(7)
The Benefits and Costs of Foreign Loans	180	(1)
The Winners and Losers	181	(3)
The Road to Redemocratization	184	(5)
Battles Within the Officer Corps	184	(2)
Manipulating the Electoral System	186	(3)
Chapter 8 Redemocratization--New Hope, Old Problems: 1985-	189	(46)
An Unintended Succession	189	(1)
Sarney and the New Democracy	190	(4)
The Cruzado Plan	192	(2)
The Debt Crisis and the Economy	194	(5)
Lost Investment	195	(2)
The Brain Drain	197	(2)
Widening Gaps Between Rich and Poor	199	(3)
Education and Health Care	200	(1)
Housing and Communications	201	(1)
Public Health: The Fish That Swam Upstream	202	(1)
Changes Affecting Women	203	(5)
Race Relations	208	(2)
Contemporary Culture	210	(1)
The Political Spectrum in the New Democracy	211	(6)
The Collor Debacle	217	(5)
The Election	218	(1)
The Policies	218	(2)
The End	220	(2)
Another Vice-President in Command	222	(1)
Back to Stabilization: The Plano Real	223	(3)
The Presidential Election of 1994	226	(9)
The Policies of the Cardoso Government	228	(4)
Cardoso's Prospects	232	(3)
Epilogue	235	(4)
Suggestions for Further Reading	239	(12)
Index	251