Um texto sobre o Brasil que saiu na Economist

oi pessoal, coloco aqui um texto que saiu sobre o brasil na revista economist.

e' bom pra quem quiser praticar o ingles...com um bom dicionario do lado e paciencia, mesmo uma pessoa que nao tem muita base, consegue entender...

History in brief
Jun 29th 2005
From Economist.com

Pedro Cabral, a Portuguese explorer, discovered Brazil and its large but scattered native population in 1500. Initial Portuguese settlements there were small, but the beginning of profitable sugar growing brought more European migrants, as well as slavery. The first slaves were captured Indians (those who had not fallen to European diseases), but beginning in the mid-16th century Africans were brought in large numbers. Settlers mostly stayed near the coast, farmed sugar or traded, and considered themselves Portuguese, though a rebellion against a Dutch encroachment in 1630-1654 helped spark Brazilian nationalism.

The discovery of gold in modern-day Minas Gerais in 1695 sharply increased immigration, and began a shift in population and importance from the sugar-growing northeast to the southeast, with Rio de Janeiro taking over as capital (from Salvador) in 1763. Brazil’s trade was tied almost exclusively to Portugal in a mercantilist relationship.

When Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807, the prince regent (later King João VI) moved the court to Rio, and in 1815 he declared a united kingdom including Brazil and Portugal. In 1821 João returned to Lisbon, leaving his son Dom Pedro in Brazil. When commanded to return in 1822, Pedro refused, declared Brazil’s independence, and soon became Brazil’s first emperor.

Pedro’s distaste for constitutionalism (and excessive interest in Portuguese politics) led to his deposition in 1831. After a turbulent ten-year regency, Pedro II, Dom Pedro’s son, took the throne. He improved infrastructure, fought a bloody but successful war with Paraguay, and was generally popular. During his reign coffee began to replace sugar as Brazil’s export mainstay, and a movement against slavery finally triumphed with its abolition in 1888. But the urban merchant class and military officers, resentful of the old order and the landed elite, forced Pedro II’s abdication in a bloodless coup in 1889, making Brazil a republic.

Brazil supported the allies against Germany in the first world war, but military unrest followed again in the 1920s. Getúlio Vargas assumed power in a coup in 1930, governing as an autocrat, moderniser and centraliser until 1945, and once again as an elected president from 1950 to 1954. With the restoration of democracy the post-war period was a hopeful time, symbolised by president Juscelino Kubitchek’s building of a new capital at Brasilia, inaugurated in 1960. But the era also saw the beginning of a chronic struggle with inflation, and the military again seized power in 1964, bringing some economic stability but ruthlessly repressing dissent. Civilian rule resumed in 1985. The first elected president of the era, Fernando Collor, was a disaster, leaving office under corruption allegations in 1992. Electoral democracy has since stabilised.