1600+-+1675

 South America

1600 - 1675

Economy Sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cotton were some of the most exported items from the European colonies in South America. With the use of Native Americans and African slaves, the Portuguese were able to create the first great sugar growing plantation of the Americas in Brazil. Around 1610, a three- roller sugar mill was introduced into Brazil to help speed up the production. Within the next century Brazil became the world’s leader in sugar production. Inupper Peru there were the Potosí from which silver was excavated. The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621. It was granted a charter for trade monopoly in the West Indies (the Caribbean) and with that, it was also given jurisdiction over the African slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America. From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch were able to seize a portion of northeastern Brazil and controlled its sugar plantation while there was an ongoing global struggle with Spain. Islands like Barbados and the Bermudas became wealth producers of sugar once sugar plantation was introduced to these areas in 1637. The General Brazil Trading Company, which was founded in 1649, was the sole supplier to Brazil of the four foodstuff basics to the Portuguese diet: wine, oil, flour, and salt cod. To fulfill the needs of the growing population a mint was established to coin silver and water reservoirs were built. ￼ Politics  The politics of Spain and Portugal was that of a professional bureaucracy. This type of government was usually made up of lawyers and judges. The Spanish and Portuguese royal officials that were trained in law established the core of the bureaucracy that existed at the time. The Portuguese Empire had colonies and outposts in Asia, Africa, and Brazil but gradually during the <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">17th century , Brazil became the predominant colony. Brazil becoming Portugal’s predominant colony made the ties between Portugal and Brazil stronger and more dependant than the ties that existed between Spanish America and Spain. Since Brazil didn’t have any universities nor printing presses, <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Brazilians and government officials that were seeking higher education or had a need to publish their work had to return to Portugal. The <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Catholic Church worked closely with the government as it oversaw the colonies. The missionaries converted<span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">indigenous people to Catholicism because the government was heavily influenced by Catholic orders. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 180%;">Society/ Culture The Jesuit missionaries first arrived at Salvador in 1549. By 1610 there were Jesuit missionaries established among the Guarani people that were found in the forested interior of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. The purpose of the missionaries was to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism from which the <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Jesuits found out that the Indians often accepted conversion since in Paraguay the Jesuits were able to gather up to one hundred thousand Guarani into their missions and by 1607 the number increased to one hundred and five thousand. By 1600 Brazil had 100,000 inhabitants of which 30,000 were European, 15,000 black slaves, and the remainder was Native American and people of mixed origins such as mulattoes and creoles. The social hierarchy reflected its plantations and slave origins. At the top of this hierarchy were the whites, in the middle were the people of mixed races, and at the bottom were the African slaves and indigenous people. In the early 1600s the slave trade brought foods from <span class="yshortcuts" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">West Africa to the islands. This led to the combination of culinary methods between the different groups of people. In 1673 Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo arrived in <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Cuzco. The bishop’s support for the arts and encouragement of native participation is responsible for some of Cuzco’s greatest treasures.