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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Klaus" data-source="post: 2217167" data-attributes="member: 607">In 1888, the Brazilian Empire was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. That, of course, caused the slave-owners to suddenyl support the military and the Empire was overthrown one year later, with the Republic being instituted.For several years prior to that, the Emperor Pedro II had been passing laws that slowly granted freedom to more and more slaves, first with the elderly ones, then with the newborns (that alone would eventually end slavery).The Portuguese that arrived in Brazil in 1500 tried to enslave the native indians, but found them to be ill-suited for heavy labor (they were a hunting/gathering bunch), and slaves were then brought in by the boatload from Africa, bought from african nations who captured their rivals and sold them to slavery. Economy was formed by boom-cycles of a single product, and every time a new cycle began, more slaves were brought in. First it was the cinderwood (a type of tree that yielded a red dye... it's portuguese name, pau-brasil, named the country, which was at first called Land of the Holy Cross). Then it was sugar. Then it was gold (and around this time Brazil became an Empire and traded political obedience to Portugal for economic obedience to Great Britain). And finally it was coffee.After slavery was abolished, economy reeled a bit. But the influx of european imigrants in the 1910s and 1920s brought in a new type of worker, who was cultured and aware of his rights, and demanded payment for his work, something the former slave-owners had a difficulty to grasp.</blockquote>

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