Context In
colonial Brazil a productive system based on
latifundia was built, where natural resources such as
lumber were exploited, export monocultures such as sugarcane and
coffee were developed, and
cattle were raised extensively. The labor force was composed of
slaves. After the installation of the
Portuguese court in
Rio de Janeiro in 1808, the royal house and liberal politicians began to develop plans to colonize the demographic voids in the south with free foreigners, who would be given small farms for the agricultural production of basic commodities, supplying the precarious domestic market. This population would also serve to swell the army in case of a border conflict with the neighboring
Platinos, at a time when the
Iberian powers' disagreements about the relations and limits between their American colonies had not yet been solved. Finally, they helped to fulfill the elites' desire to
whiten the Brazilian population, which at that time was massively composed of blacks and
indigenous. Immigrants would later fill the labor shortage on the coffee farms generated by the
abolition of the slave trade. In the
European continent a crisis was forming: With the advent of the
Industrial Revolution, great masses of peasants became impoverished and left the countryside taking refuge in the cities and swelling the mass of proletarianized workers in factories, or were sent to the
mines and
railroads. Great political and social instability, successive and devastating wars, revolts,
epidemics, and famine contributed to an unsustainable scenario. Thus, due to a series of factors, a vast wave of emigration began in which tens of millions of
emigrants from various countries left for
America, where they hoped to prosper. According to Zuleika Alvin, "for some expelling countries, such as
Italy and
Spain, the descriptions of the places where the immigrants lived and the promiscuity in which they were forced to live due to poverty are good examples of the repercussion of the economic crisis on the
bucolic landscape of the countryside". The researcher continues: The south was a favorable region for several reasons: The landowners were not interested or did not look kindly at the idea of introducing free labor and a smallholding system, which could compete economically and shake the political and social power of the landowning elite. However, in the south, there was a large amount of idle wasteland, the so-called "demographic voids", which although populated by Indians, did not change anything in the eyes of the government. In the middle of the century, other factors contributed to the increase in the attractiveness of the south. When
Germans began to be shipped to the coffee plantations in
São Paulo, they became poorly paid employees, often encountered subhuman working and housing conditions, and suffered abuse. Reports circulated in Europe, causing outrage and leading to restrictions on the departure of Germans from some regions. The prospect of obtaining land and being a landowner remained open in the south. Finally, there was a scientific discourse circulating at the Court, which considered the North and Northeast inadvisable for the settlement of Europeans. To convince those interested, the Brazilian government offered a series of advantages: Transport at the government's expense; free land allotment of 78 hectares; a daily subsidy of one franc or 160 réis for each settler in the first year and half in the second; a certain amount of clothing, oxen, cows, horses, pigs, and chickens, in proportion to the number of people in each family; ten-year exemption from paying taxes; freedom of worship, and immediate granting of Brazilian
citizenship. Some promises hurt the
Empire's Constitution, such as freedom of worship and immediate citizenship, and the aid in materials and money did not always deliver what was promised. There are many accounts of settlers living the first years in misery. Their regions of origin were diverse:
Hunsrück,
Saxony,
Württemberg,
Coburg,
Holstein, Hamburg,
Mecklenburg,
Hanover,
Palatinate,
Pomerania, and
Westphalia. in Hamburgo Velho, a typical example of German
half-timbered architecture. In 1830, when more than 5,300 Germans were already in the province, pressure from landowners led to the approval of a new Budget Law that prohibited any spending on colonization, including the payment of back debts. The law created difficulties for settlers who were establishing themselves, preventing them from receiving subsidies. The outbreak of the
Ragamuffin War in 1835 divided the province and increased the difficulties for the continuity of the government's colonizing plans, worsened when Law nº 16 of 12 August 1834 had transferred to the province's the responsibilities for organizing the project. With these upheavals, the flow of immigrants was greatly reduced but not entirely interrupted, and the colonized areas increased. At the beginning of the war the German colonization already extended to the north of São Leopoldo with the formation of the nuclei of
Hamburgo Velho,
Dois Irmãos, Bom Jardim, Quarenta e Oito, and
São José do Hortêncio. In this first stage of colonization, São Leopoldo and Hamburgo Velho were the most prosperous centers, favored by their proximity to
Porto Alegre, the provincial capital, and by the control of an important network of land and river transport. In a few decades, these centers had become dynamic villages with well-structured commerce, an expressive rural production concentrated on
maize, beans,
manioc, and
tobacco, as well as several manufactures and small industries. The surplus production supplied Porto Alegre and nearby regions and was exported. The economic and urban growth provided for the formation of a new society and a differentiated culture in this region. In 1849, the colony of
Santa Cruz do Sul was founded in the Rio Pardo valley, the first one entirely organized by the province, on the margins of the recently opened Estrada de Cima da Serra, which connected the important commercial warehouse and military base of Rio Pardo with the cowsheds of Soledade. Having Santa Cruz as a support base - it would become the main German colonial town in the central region of the province in this stage. The available fallow land soon ran out, even with the concession of new areas by the government, and several other settlements were opened by private individuals or their areas were bought from private individuals by the government. Starting colonies was advantageous for the owners of large idle land since the government offered incentives, and if well conducted the projects generated large profits.
Third Stage With the
Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, the vacant lands passed to the states, as did the responsibility for colonization. The positivist local government defended spontaneous immigration and private colonization. Quickly, the
Rio Grande do Sul plateau was transformed into a colonial zone due to the attracted by the possibilities of exploiting the land trade and obtaining easy profits. Between 1890 and 1914 another 17,000 Germans arrived. The colonization frontier at the beginning of the 20th century reached the northwest of the state, creating
Ijuí, and
Santa Rosa, among others, soon after crossing the
Uruguay River and migrating to the west of
Santa Catarina and
Paraná, besides colonies in the north of
Argentina and
Paraguay. After the
First World War, the colonial question returned to the control of the Union, and due to the dominant
nationalist tendencies a limit was imposed on the entry of more foreigners. Even so, it is estimated that between 1914 and 1939 more than 30,000 Germans and
Austrians arrived, but about a third of them did not settle permanently, moving to other states after a few years. Of those who stayed, a good part did not end up in the countryside or pioneer new settlements but preferred to settle in the already established cities. After
World War II the number of immigrants decreased until it became extinct. The last colony formed was a group of
Mennonite families who had emigrated to Santa Catarina in the 1930s, migrating to Rio Grande do Sul, settling south of Bagé between 1949 and 1951. == The rural colonies and communities ==