Fazenda

A fazenda (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɐˈzẽdɐ, fa-]) is a plantation found throughout Brazil during the colonial period (16th - 18th centuries).

Fazendas created major export commodities for Brazilian trade, but also led to intensification of slavery in Brazil.

In the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and then São Paulo, coffee estates, or fazendas, began to spread toward the interior as new lands were opened.

Railroads, steamships and telegraph lines were introduced in Brazil, all paid for by the money the fazendas supplied from their coffee crop.

More than 130 years after the end of slavery, forced labour practices in Brazil still occur in both rural and urban areas, mainly through debt bondage schemes.