Where Brazilians Originated

When the Portuguese first arrived in the 16th century, several hundred indigenous tribes lived within the vast area that is now Brazil. These tribes shared many racial characteristics but spoke different languages and had different cultures. The tribes living along the coast and the adjoining hinterland, mostly speaking the Tupi and Guarani languages, intermarried with the Portuguese settlers. The many tribes of the interior, speaking languages such as Arwak and Carib, took longer to establish contact with the Europeans. In trying to understand Where Brazilians Originated, we find the fascinating mix that is Brazil encompasses a vast variety of origins.

Today, Brazil's native Indians number about 250,000, comprising about 200 distinct groups and speaking some 180 different languages. The territories set aside for them by the Federal Government, in which they are free to preserve their traditional lifestyles, cover around 850,000 square kilometres -10% of Brazil's total area, or more than three times the area covered by the United Kingdom.

From the mid-16th century onwards, Africans belonging to the Bantu and Sudanic ethnic groups were brought to Brazil to work as slaves in the sugarcane industry. Later, more slaves worked on coffee plantations and in gold and diamond mines. The process of miscegenation that had begun between the Europeans and the Indians rapidly encompassed the black slaves.

This ethnic mixing continued as Brazil began to receive increasing numbers of immigrants from all over the world. Portugal remained the main country of origin, with Italy in second place and Lebanon third.

In the first half of the 20th century, as a consequence of war and economic pressures, sizeable contingents of immigrants came to Brazil from various parts of western, central and eastern Europe.

In 1908, 640 immigrants arrived in Brazil from Japan. They were to followed by many more. By 1969, around 250,000 Japanese had migrated to Brazil. It is a little-known fact that today Brazil contains the largest number of people of Japanese ancestry outside Japan, most of them living in Sao Paulo state and the south of the country.

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