Answer: Brazil was a Portuguese colony for about three centuries and became independent in 1822.
- The Portuguese sailor Pedro Alvares Cabral reached the coast of Brazil in 1500, and Portugal ruled the land and used it for sugar and coffee plantations worked by slaves.
- Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1822 and became a republic in 1889; slavery was abolished in 1888.
- From 1930 to 1985 the country was mostly under populist and military governments; since then it has been a democratic federal republic.