Brazilian History Timeline

By a_hobbit
  • 1500

    Pedro Cabral claims Brazil-- Explorer Pedro Cabral lands in Brazil and claims it for Portugal.

  • Period: Jan 1, 1500 to

    Brazilian History Timeline

  • 1530

    There's an expedition led by Martim Afonso de Sousa and this marks the first Portuguese settlements in Brazil

  • 1549

    Tomé de Sousa sailed to Brazil to establish a central government. He brought along Jesuits, who set up missions.

  • 1550

    The first sugarcane farms were established. They got slaves from Africa for the sugarcane farming.

  • 1555

    French forces occupy Rio de Janeiro harbor. Two years later, Portugal regains control and establishes the city of Rio de Janeiro.

  • Dutch withdraw from Brazil. After several years of war with Portuguese the Dutch withdrew over Brazil.

  • Gold is discovered in Brazil's interior.

  • Portugal gives up Colonia do Sacramento in the Treaty of Utrecht (aka Spanish Succession)

  • Coffee introduced to Brazil

  • The Minas Conspiracy was a group inspired by the U.S. Revolution. These Brazilians wanted to become independent of Portugal. Sadly they failed.

  • France invades Portugal. John VI flees to Brazil with his family including his son Pedro.

  • Brazil becomes part of the Portuguese Kingdom called: The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves

  • Pedro I declares Brazil Independent from Portugal. Pedro refused to obey the Cortes. He said: “Tell the people that I am staying.”

  • Pedro writes the first Brazilian constitution

  • Pedro II becomes the king of Brazil when he was 6

  • South America’s War of the Triple Alliance saw Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay aligned against Paraguay.

  • After the American Civil War some southerners moved to Brazil

  • May 13th Slavery was abolished in Brazil. Some 4 million slaves had been imported, the most of any nation in the western hemisphere.

  • Nov 15th, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Emperor Dom Pedro II was overthrown

  • Oct 12th, the Rio de Janeiro 98-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer was unveiled atop Corcovado Mountain

  • Brazilian women won the right to vote!

  • Aug 22nd, Brazil declared war on the Axis powers. They were the only South American country to send combat troops into Europe.

  • In 1945, military dictator Vargas is deposed by the military in a surprise coup.

  • In 1950 Vargas is democratically elected as President.

  • Vargas' death energized the opposition against the military, and saved the country from bloodshed for an additional ten years.

  • In order to centralize the power and not favor a region, the capital is moved to Brasilia in 1960.

  • Humberto Castelo Branco who from 1964 to 1967 served as the military dictator

  • In 1985, civilian government was restored.

  • In 2010, Dilma Rousseff was elected, the first woman in Brazilian history to become president.

  • Now