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Lasting almost 200 years or about until gold discoveries in the Minas Gerais took everyone's attention away, the sugar boom in Brazil saw African slaves imported but also a Portuguese middle and upper class to administer the massive plantations.
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WIth an eye towards siphoning off some of the business and riches flowing out of the Spanish Potosi mines nearby and also to gain a toehold within the River Plate estuary region, Manuel Lobo founds the later thrice warred over Colonia de Sacramento in the southern region of Brazil. Most of the colonists are peasants from the Azores. Several Portuguese settlements in the area would follow as attempts were made to secure influence in the area.
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As the eighteenth century dawned, Portugal would have two million residents and by the time the century ended, 400,000 would have left for Brazil despite the Crown's efforts to manage immigration. The colony of Brazil would have most unusual circumstances vis a vis other colonial experiences, one of which was trying to STOP people immigrating whereas other powers would have to beg / pay criminals to populate the new lands.
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As the gold rush rolled along, fortune seekers began to build villages around the mines which still stand to this day. Quite unlike the boomtowns turned ghost towns that dot the rest of the Americas, villages such as Ouro Preto are designated by the United Nations as having extreme cultural value.
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Spain and Portugal settle up the issue of the southern region, some of which comprises modern day Uruguay and Argentina.
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