Economic Strategies: A Comparison of Brazil and the United States

 A lot of Americans don't know much about Brazil. Some people may have heard of the "Big Jesus" in Rio de Janeiro, whose real name is Christ the Redeemer. A lot of people know that Carnival happens, but they don't know what it means or that the whole country stops during these four days of joy. A lot of people know the tune to "Girl from Ipanema," which is one of the most famous Brazilian songs, but not many people would say that it was written by the famous musician Antonio Carlos Jobim. Some Americans might know that samba is from Brazil, but they probably wouldn't be able to tell it apart from salsa or zumba.

People in the United States think that Brazil has great soccer skills

And some of the biggest soccer fans know that Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Not many people in the United States know that Portuguese, not Spanish, is the official language of Brazil. Not many people know that Brazil was the first country to pick a woman as president, before the US. Some Americans may know that Brazil's economy is improving, but they would still say that Brazil is a poor, rural country with few resources. People say that the United States is a young country, but Brazil is even younger. Brazil became independent almost fifty years after the United States. For this reason, Brazil's systems, ranging from health care and social welfare to business and education, have grown and are still growing more slowly than those in the US. Besides being in different time zones, Brazil and the US are also separated physically by about 30 degrees of length between Central American countries. These gaps in time and place have created two very different countries, each with its own culture and way of life. This part will give an overview of how Brazil came to be and how it has grown as a country.

In 1500, Portuguese explorers landed on what is now Brazil by chance. They came across millions of Native Americans and a lot of different kinds of natural riches (Rohter 11–12).

The Native Americans were much stronger than the Portuguese, but the Portuguese were able to win

Because the locals were not united and were not immune to the smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and flu that the Portuguese brought with them (Rohter 12, Tiku 26).

It wasn't until 1538 that the first slaves from Africa came. The slave trade gave the Portuguese enough workers to clear the land, making it a great place to grow brazilwood, sugar, cotton, tobacco, beans, manioc (or cassava), and even gold (Rohter 11–14). In this way, Brazilians today come from three main groups: Native Americans, African slaves, and European settlers (Branco 29). When other European countries heard about the chances in Brazil, they were eager to get a piece of the action. The Portuguese had to protect the eastern coast from the Spanish, the Dutch, and the French. Building the two biggest and most important towns in Brazil today, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, is thought to have caused these threats. Defending the Portuguese islands also brought the colonists in Brazil together and gave them a sense of who they were. Brazil got its freedom from Portugal in a very different way. Napoleon's power put the Portuguese royal family in danger in 1808 and they were forced to leave their home country. They had to flee to the islands of Brazil, which used to be worse places to live. In an instant, Brazil was home to a Portuguese empire with vast power and a strong position in trade and industry. It's strange that when Napoleon was beaten and it was safe for the royal family to go back to Portugal, the king's son was more loyal to his new home than to his old home. Pedro I became the first Emperor of Brazil when his father, King João VI, went back to Portugal to rule there. So, the Portuguese royal family probably didn't hold the freedom of Brazil in high regard, but it was a time of relative peace and no bloody war.

Brazil has had a rough political past ever since it became independent

There was a lot of corruption and distrust in the government by the time Pedro I gave the throne to his son, Pedro II. People were given favors and jobs in the state were filled based on relationships rather than skills. Brazil got rid of slavery in 1889, thanks in large part to a growing navy. That same year, there was a coup that removed Pedro II from power and gave it to the national military as a whole. This time is known as the First Republic. The elections in this unofficial government were rigged, and the leaders were weak and didn't care about the needs of many areas and social classes. Brazil needed a president with good plans to get back on track after a long, unstable term under a controversial leader. People know Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira for his "fifty years in five" plan to make big changes in the country very quickly. He is mostly remembered for moving the national capital from Rio de Janeiro, which is on the coast, to a small area of land in the middle state of Goiás. It took only four short years to build Brasília, the city, to show that Brazil was modern and moving forward. Kubitschek is also known for building dams and power plants, making appliances, and growing the steel mills and car industries in Germany. Many things were added and grown, but it cost a lot. During this time, Brazil's national debt grew very large. In 1960, Kubitschek started getting loans from the International Monetary Fund, which the country had to pay back for many years.