Brazil Brazil. However, the decentralized and unorganized tendencies of the captaincy colonies proved problematic, and in 1549 the Portuguese king restructured them into the Governorate General of Brazil, a single and centralized Portuguese colony in South America. In the first two centuries of colonization, Indigenous and European groups lived in constant war, establishing opportunistic alliances in order to gain advantages against each other. By the mid-16th century, cane sugar had become Brazil's most important export, and slaves purchased in Sub-Saharan Africa, in the slave market of Western Africa (not only those from Portuguese allies of their colonies in Angola and Mozambique),
1851 Boundary Treaty (Brazil–Uruguay) 1851 Boundary Treaty (Brazil–Uruguay) The 1851 Boundary Treaty established between Brazil and Uruguay as a result of the Uruguayan Civil War and conflicts with Brazil and Argentina; the result of the treaty was a step towards the acceptance of Uruguay's independence from neighboring territories. Uruguay rewarded Brazil's financial and military support by signing five treaties in 1851 that provided for perpetual alliance between the two countries. The Treaty of Montevideo (1828) confirmed Brazil's right to intervene in Uruguay's internal affairs. The treaties also allowed joint navigation on the Uruguay River and its tributaries, and tax exempted cattle and salted meat