As a result, land was concentrated in the hands of relatively few wealthy, plantation-owning families, and production was largely dependent on slave labor.
Brazil stretches unbroken from the Amazon in the north to the Rio de la Plata in the south, and from the Atlantic coast to the foothills of the Andes[...] The vast majority of the people speak Portuguese and are Roman Catholic.
Their language differentiates them from their Spanish speaking neighbors[...]" [2] A growing nationalistic trend in literature,[3] and the emergence of colonial born elites created a sense of pride and attachment to the territory of Brazil and a distancing from Portugal.
[4] Despite its natural geographic barriers and the distinct culture of its inhabitants, Brazilian independence would only be realized after a series of events set in motion by the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1807, Portugal was invaded by Napoleon forcing prince regent Dom Joao to flee to Brazil along with other members of the royal family, and a number of notables and functionaries.
[5] After the French withdrawal from Portugal, mounting pressure from the Cortes (Portuguese parliament) forced the return of Dom Joao (now King John VI) in 1821.
Defying the Cortes, Dom Pedro formed a legislative and constituent assembly on June 3, 1822, and declared Brazil's independence on September 7, 1822.
[5] Since its independence Brazil has been subject to a lot of internal unrest resulting in several years of military rule and the promulgation of several different constitutions, the most recent one being passed in 1988.
The plantation owners backed Pedro's declaration of independence because it granted them greater freedom to conduct trade and the opportunity to expand their overseas markets.
Men who were twenty-five years old (twenty-one if married), Catholic, born free, with quite low annual income had the right to vote in the elections of the Chamber of Deputies.
This created a growing fear among both rural and urban elites that emancipated slaves would acquire the property necessary to secure the right to vote.
Rather than extend political participation, the literacy tests greatly restricted it because eighty to eighty-five percent of the population at this time was illiterate.
November 1866: immersed in the Paraguayan War and anxious to recruit troops, an Imperial Government decree permits slaves to serve in the Brazilian army, and in return would be granted their freedom unconditionally.
[15] On May 13, 1888, Princess Isabel, acting in place of her ailing father Pedro II, signed the law that abolished slavery in Brazil, granting no compensation to slave owners.
Despite this, and the limitations remaining of suffrage, the early years of the Republic did allow for a substantial advance in direct popular participation in comparison with the late empire.
In order to be entitled to health assistance, retirement funds and other welfare benefits it required one to be entered in a formal job contract.
By granting these social rights the government increasingly drew people into the urban labor market, allowing for economic expansion and development.
This increasing concentration of populations in urban centers created a strong demand on public goods and services, which was only exacerbated with the economic crisis of the 1980s.
Further adding to the situation, the growth of urban employment in the informal economy not only restricted access of social rights to this segment of the population, but weakened the tax basis for the welfare state.
"[It is] clear that the darker a Brazilian, the more likely he [is] to be found at the bottom of the socio-economic scale by every indicator- income, occupation, education [...] subtle but unmistakable discrimination in social relations remain[...] although it has never been codified since the colonial era.
This caused a growing informalization of political activity among these groups, whereby these citizens identify their participation in the local community as the core feature of citizenship.
They have moved them away from the national discourse of rights-based democratic practices as their definition of citizenship, towards one expressed through specific forms of community participation.
[23] From the establishment of the republic on, the state has actively pursued a policy aimed at assimilating these native groups, and integrating them into Brazilian society.