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Anthropologists believe
that at least 20,000 years ago American Indians migrated
across the Bering Strait from north-eastern Asia. They
were hunter-gatherers who followed the animals across
the land bridge connecting Asia and North America. The
tribes were highly mobile and, once they crossed into
Alaska, they moved south to warmer climates. Eventually,
they reached the Amazon Basin in Brazil and spread out
from there. It's also likely that a separate, later
migration took place across the oceans, jumping from
island to island.
In modern time, after
the "re-discovery" of Brazil by Pedro Alvares
Cabral, in April 1500, the Portuguese Crown sent expeditions
every year, with the purpose to recognize and survey
the coast of the new territory, named the Santa Cruz
Province. In 1548 the state of Brazil was founded
as a monarchy province of Portugal and one year after
the first governor was selected, Tomé de Sousa.
About fifty years later,
on January, 25, 1554, the city of São Paulo was founded
by the Jesuit father, José Anchieta. By that time
there were just some houses and one school/church
house in the town. In 1900 São Paulo had increased
to 240 thousand inhabitants. During the 20th century
the city has grown a lot and is today classified as
the most dynamic cultural, economic and scientific
place in South America. At present it lives almost
18million people in the metropolis.
Throughout the 17th and
18th centuries, Bandeirantes from São Paulo continued
to march off into the interior to secure the huge
interior of South America for Portuguese Brazil, search
for gold and to enslave Indians. Most Bandeirantes
were born of Indian mothers and Portuguese fathers.
On November 29, 1807
Napoleon's army marched on Lisbon. Two days before
the invasion, 40 ships carrying the Portuguese prince
regent, Dom João VI and his entire court of 15,000
had set sail for Brazil. When the prince regent arrived
in Rio de Janeiro, he took immediately over the rule
of Brazil. On September, 7, 1822, Brazil became independent
from the Portuguese Crown, but the Brazilian monarchy
went on till 1889.
From 1880 the immigration
from Europe began and it was mainly people from Italy,
but also from Portugal, Spain, Germany, Japan and
others that arrived at the port in Santos. By that
time also the Brazilian industrialization had started.
During the 20th century
the Brazilian political situation was some turbulent
and between 1964 - 1985 the country was governed by
the military. Mr. Tancredo Neves was the first president
elected by the people after the military government.
Today Brazil still suffers from political and economical
problems, but the situation is better than before
and the country is more open for trade with foreign
countries, Mercosul trade union is one example of
that.
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