Featuring Bryan Pitts, assistant director of the Latin American Institute at UCLA and author of Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship.
Episode 1
Explores the indigenous civilizations populating the land that would become Brazil before European conquest, how the Portuguese stumbled upon the region in 1500, the role of the nascent colony in the development of capitalism, how indigenous communities became embroiled in inter-European powers’ rivalries, and where things stood at the dawn of the 17th century.
Episode 2
Picks up in the 17th century at the start of the sugar boom and all that comes along with it. They discuss sugar cultivation’s connection with the slave trade, the mechanics of trafficking people from Africa to Brazil and what distinguished the Brazilian model of slavery, the capitania system, the advent of gold mining, how sugar and mineral resource extraction contributed to proto-capitalism, and more until the Age of Revolutions.
Episode 3
We’re now into the 19th century and Brazilian independence. The group discusses what led to this moment, the changing racial dynamics, liberalism in Brazil vs its European form, the emergence of coffee as its predominant commodity, the Paraguayan War, the modernization period, and more through the 1889 coup.
More episodes coming soon!