How Did The Portuguese Encounter In Brazil

the Portuguese had a sudden interest in Brazil because of French and Spanish invaders, and because of the economic downfall that was taking place in India. The Spanish were succeeding in Peru, which in turn made the Portuguese bitter, but the Portuguese still believed that Brazil had a value yet to be discovered. The thriving of Brazil finally came with the introduction of sugarcane during the mid-sixteenth century, but the Portuguese did not see much success until after 1570. Sugarcane trade was primarily in control of Muslims; prior to expanding their empires, the Europeans made a devastating political choice of expelling Moors from Europe, which in turn caused the Muslims to stop sugar trade with the Europeans. Therefore, sugar became

a valuable crop and the Portuguese were in a favorable economic position. Sugarcane was first grown in the Portuguese-Atlantic islands, which became an important model in Brazilian sugarcane plantations. Before success was in Portuguese hands, they had to overcome one large problem: the Indians.
The Indians-Portuguese work relationship was based on a barter system, but their relationship started to weaken when the Indians became increasingly demanding for more expensive goods; also, the Indians started forming alliances with the French. Consequently, the cost of sugar production sharply increased and the Portuguese had to find other ways to grow sugarcane. Tóme de Sousa, the first royal governor of Brazil, and King João III did not approve of slavery, but the Portuguese settlers began to enslave Indians. Even though Indians were enslaved, the Portuguese did not solve the labor shortage. In 1549, the Portuguese began to import slaves from Africa to Brazil and incorporated their “technological knowledge necessary to produce sugar cheaply and efficiently.” The results in sugar production were incredible. In 1549, there were some slaves and about a dozen sugar mills in Brazil, but by 1580, “there were probably 5,000 slaves and 118 [sugar mills] producing 9,600,000 pounds of sugar each year.” Portugal became a prominent figure in sugar production and enjoyed economic success in Brazil after much hostility and failure. The Portuguese also saw Brazil as a way station to India, but the weather proved otherwise.
When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the scribe of the Cabral crew described Brazil as a possible layover station for ships going to India; the king believed his words and even believed that God put Brazil in the path of the Portuguese. The king did not force ships to stop in Brazil and the decision was left to the pilot of the fleet. A few ships stopped in Brazil due to mechanical problems, but the Indians were violent against the Portuguese and the Portuguese began to avoid the area, if possible. Brazilian waters also proved to be dangerous, since the Abrolhos, which are “a series of flats or shoals,” destroyed the ship. Destroying the ship was a negative impact to the Portuguese economy, especially since the ships had to wait another year to sail for spices to be obtained in India. After a few years of sailing to and from India, the king and the navigators realized that there were better routes, especially routes that did not waste their time. Time was important for the ships, because of weather conditions of the trip back to Portugal and because of the economic gains that were to be made in India. The preferred route was passing around Africa. The African route was preferred, because the ships benefitted from monsoons and their wind directions. Brazil proved to be useless as a stopping place for Portuguese fleet, but Brazil still profited them in brazilwood and sugar cultivation. The economies the Europeans established in the sixteenth century were different and depended on the land and people they encountered. As described, the economic basis between the Europeans in China and the Portuguese in Brazil are vastly different.
The Chinese were concerned with trading silk for silver with the Spanish and Portuguese. The Portuguese and Spanish wanted to expand their trade routes and were in constant competition with each other to achieve the most expansion. Since the Chinese were already interested with money and trading, the Spanish and Portuguese had no reason to try to enslave them or else they would lose an important economic partner. On the other hand, the Portuguese in Brazil were concerned in cultivating sugarcane, which had to be introduced to the land; they were also concerned with exporting brazilwood in order to reap money for the Crown. During the sixteenth century, the Portuguese were not too concerned with religion and converting the Indians, but they were rather fixated on exploiting the land for economic gain. The Portuguese wanted to exploit the Indians for labor, but that goal failed and African slaves had to be shipped into Brazil. All the prosperity that was enjoyed by the Portuguese did not just involve a mass importation of slaves, but also a trial and error in their capitalist captaincies.
The goal of captaincies between 1534 and 1549 was to settle, defend, and develop land. The captaincies in Brazil were peculiar, because those who were willing to work on the land were able to acquire a grant of land. The people who received grants were called donatarios. Since the donatarios were working to gain the most money possible, they could be described as capitalistic, especially since they were taking an enormous risk to settle in a hostile territory. The land grants were not given to the nobility and instead, most of the people who received them were from the military or lesser nobility. Because the attention was not on the aristocrats, people from other classes were able to flourish economically and socially. In addition to the failed brazilwood economy, the Portuguese did not do very well in handling the captaincies and there was constant conflict with the Indians. Only three of the fifteen captaincies were successful by the middle of the sixteenth century. Since the captaincies were not producing profit for the Crown, the Portuguese government took over and established a royal government around the mid-sixteenth century. The king could also be described as a capitalist, because he implemented “navigation policies” and “commercial monopolies [of sugarcane].” After the Portuguese established a central government in Brazil, the economy started to grow due to the decision of importing slaves for the sugarcane plantations. Even the poor were able to go back to Portugal with great wealth. Economic success was not seen until the second half of the sixteenth century, but the Portuguese were soon able to forget their failure when they became an economic powerhouse.
Economic success for the Portuguese and Spanish was much easier in China, because they came at a time when the Ming government banned trading with the Japanese. The Portuguese and Spanish presence in China was crucial, because they were middlemen in trade and were able to make some money out of their role. They did not have to colonize China to obtain economic prosperity; they just had to build trust with the Chinese in order to be the intermediaries in trade. In contrast, the Portuguese had a more unfavorable role in the settlement of Brazil. François de Polignac points out that colonies “[reinforced] the identity of the polis,” because they were supposed to be an apoikia, or home away from home. In Brazil’s case, the Portuguese began its settlement through captaincies, which were the identities of the individuals who obtained the land grant and not of the Portuguese Crown. The lack of an overall Portuguese identity made Brazil have slow economic progress. The Portuguese then had to modify the government in the middle of the sixteenth century. The presence of a royal government gave Brazil an identity. Brazil’s identity was not positive in regard to the Indians, but it gave Brazil an identity of a sugar powerhouse and it added to the identity of Portugal as a major economic power in sixteenth century.
The Spanish and Portuguese encounters in China where different from the Portuguese encounters in Brazil.

The Spanish and Portuguese were able to thrive in China during the sixteenth century, because China already had a well-established silk industry. The Chinese were interested in trading with the Spanish for silver; the Chinese were also interested in Jesuits as middlemen in Japanese trade. In contrast, the Portuguese did not have much prosperity in Brazil at the beginning of its settlement. The Portuguese had to start from nothing and had to introduce sugarcane for the sake of producing revenue in Brazil. In addition, the Portuguese had to import slaves from Africa in order to cultivate sugarcane. The constant, economic encounters that took place in sixteenth-century China and Brazil were more than just trade. When people engage in trade with people of other countries, they are taking part in globalization. The economic interests of people and countries affect the customs, languages, and families of the inhabitants of the area. Even though the Age of Discovery happened centuries ago, globalization continues to develop today, because new technology and laws are being created to make commerce easier or harder to

accomplish.