Portuguese Brazilians

Portuguese Brazilians ( pt, luso-brasileiros) are Brazilians whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese who arrived throughout the centuries in Brazil sought economic opportunities. Although present since the onset of the colonization, Portuguese people began migrating to Brazil in larger numbers and without state support in the 18th century.

Nowadays, the Portuguese constitute the 2nd biggest group of foreigners living in the country (the largest being the Bolivians), with an estimated 380,000 Portuguese immigrants currently living in Brazil. According to Portuguese law, any Brazilian who has at least one Portuguese parent or grandparent is eligible to obtain Portuguese citizenship (with some restrictions, especially for grandchildren). Five million Brazilians (2.5% of the population) fall under this category. Many more people are of Portuguese descent however.

The Portuguese prerogative

According to the Constitution of Brazil, the Portuguese people have a special status in Brazil. Article 12, first paragraph of the Constitution, grants to citizens of Portugal with permanent residence in Brazil "the rights attached to Brazilians", excluded from the constitutional prerogatives of Brazilian born. Requirements for the granting of equality are: habitual residence (permanent), the age of majority and formulation of request from the Minister of Justice.

In Brazil, the Portuguese may require equal treatment with regard to civil rights; moreover, they may ask to be granted political rights granted to Brazilians (except the rights exclusive to the Brazilian born). In the latter case, this requires a minimum of three years of permanent residence.

The use of citizenship by non-Brazilian nationals (in this case, Portuguese) is a rare exception to the principle that nationality is a ''sine qua non'' for citizenship, granted to the Portuguese – if with reciprocal treatment for the Brazilians in Portugal – due to the historic relationship between the two countries.

History

Early settlement and colonization (1500–1700)

Some of the earliest colonists for whom we have written records are João Ramalho and Diogo Álvares Correia. At the time the Portuguese Crown was focused on securing its highly lucrative Portuguese Empire in Asia, and so did little to protect the newly discovered lands in the Americas from foreign interlopers. As a result, many pirates, mainly French, began dealing in pau brasil with the Amerindians. This situation worried Portugal, which in the 1530s started to encourage the colonization of Brazil, principally for defensive reasons. The towns of Cananéia (1531), São Vicente (1532), Porto Seguro (1534) and Iguape (1538) date from that period.

By the mid-16th century, Portuguese colonists were already settling in significant numbers, mainly along the coastal regions of Brazil. Numerous cities were established, including Salvador (1549), São Paulo (1554) and Rio de Janeiro (1565). While most Portuguese (and predominantly male) settlers came willingly, some were forced exiles or ''degredados''. Such convicts were sentenced for a variety of crimes according to the ''Ordenações do Reino'', which included common theft, attempted murder and adultery.

During the 17th century, most Portuguese settlers in Brazil, who throughout the entire colonial period tended to originate from Northern Portugal, moved to the northeastern part of the country to establish the first sugar plantations. Some of the new arrivals were New Christians, that is, descendants of Portuguese Jews who had been induced to convert to Catholicism and remained in Portugal, yet were often targeted by the Inquisition (established in 1536) under the accusation of being crypto-Jews.

Azoreans in Maranhão, Pará and Amapá

There was concern in keeping the control of the territory, hence the policy in promoting the colonization with couples in the border lands. The occupation of the territory was seen as essential. In 1619, about 300 couples arrived in Maranhão, the total number of people being around 1000 individuals, a significant number for that time. Maranhão is the first region to receive Azorean settlers in an organised way. Beyond the initial settling in 1619, led by Estácio da Silveira in 1619, others followed: in 1621 arrived 40 couples with António Ferreira de Bettencourt and Jorge de Lemos Bettencourt, in 1625 other couples came with Francisco Coelho de Carvalho; in the ships "N. S. da Palma" and "São Rafael", 50 couples arrived; in the ships "N. S. da Penha de França" and "São Francisco Xavier" more settlers came.Açorianos no Brasil, Vera Lúcia Maciel Barroso Throughout the 17th century, successive waves of Azorean couples were settled in Maranhão.

Azorean couples were also settled in Pará, an example of this being the 50 couples (or around 219 individuals) who embarked on 29 March 1677, in the ship "Jesus, Maria e "José", in Horta, Faial. In 1676, 50 Azorean couples with 234 people of both sexes landed in Belém, coming from Feiteira, Faial

In 1751 Macapá in Amapá received Azoreans and it was recommended to the captain of the ship to have a special care with the settlers, since "for the most part they were women, children and older people".

Growing Portuguese migrants (1700–1822)

In the 18th century, immigration to Brazil from Portugal increased dramatically. Immigrants to Brazil departed from Portugal via the ports of Lisbon (Leixões), Porto, and Funchal on Madeira. Two British companies provided the bulk of transport of passengers in this period: the Companhia Marítima Mala Real Britânica and later the Companhia de Navegação do Pacifico. Many gold and diamond mines were discovered in the region of Minas Gerais, which then led to the arrival of not only Portuguese, but also of native-born Brazilians. Regarding the former, most were peasants from the Minho region in Portugal. In the beginning, Portugal stimulated the immigration of ''minhotos'' to Brazil. After some time, however, the number of departures was so great that the Portuguese Crown had to establish barriers to further immigration. Most of these Portuguese involved in the goldrush ended up settling in Minas Gerais and in the Center-West region of Brazil, where they founded dozens of cities such as Ouro Preto, Congonhas, Mariana, São João del Rei, Tiradentes, Goiás, etc.

In the words of Simão Ferreira Machado, in Triunfo Eucarístico, published in Lisbon in 1734, "half of Portugal was transplanted" to Brazil at that time.

Official estimates - and most estimates made so far - place the number of Portuguese migrants to Colonial Brazil during the gold rush of the 18th century at 600,000. Though not usually studied, this represented one of the largest movements of European populations to their colonies to the Americas during the colonial times. According to historian Leslie Bethell

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