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),
Brazil–Uruguay relations intervened, initiating the Uruguayan Civil War, or "Guerra Grande" (Great War). Manuel Oribe was eventually defeated in 1851, leaving the "Colorados" in full control of the country. Brazil followed up by intervening in Uruguay in May 1851, supporting the "Colorados" with financial and naval forces. In February 1852, Rosas resigned, and the pro-"Colorado" forces lifted the siege of Montevideo. Uruguay rewarded Brazil's financial and military support by signing five treaties in 1851 that provided for perpetual alliance between the two countries. Montevideo confirmed Brazil's right to intervene in Uruguay's internal affairs. The treaties also allowed joint navigation on the Uruguay