Due to newly found land, the Portuguese who settled needed labor to work the large estates and mines in the new colony. Slavery had a huge impact on Brazil. The country had the largest slave population in the world, which was substantially larger than the United States. Slavery affected both the economy and the ethnic makeup of the Brazilian population. The large number of African slaves that were imported, profoundly affected the ethnic balance in Brazil. African culture was not wiped out thus had a significant impact on Brazilian culture. This is especially the case in Rio De Janeiro, where the slaves were concentrated. Slavery was not legally ended nationwide until 1888. In the Western world, Brazil was the last nation to abolish …show more content…
The plan consisted of a new currency aimed to the U.S. dollar, a strict monetary policy, a severe fiscal adjustment that had a nine percent reduction in federal spending and a tax increase of five percent. Immediately prices began to stabilize. With the annual inflation falling from 2,730 percent in 1993 to about 18 percent in 1995. Cardoso started privatizing some state owned enterprises and gradually opened the Brazilian economy to foreign trade and investment. For a few years, these policies contributed to strong growth rates. Foreign investors began flooding Brazil with large capital inflows that contributed to currency appreciation and the eventual overvaluation of the Real. Following the 1997 East Asian and 1998 Russian financial crises, concerns about Brazil’s overvalued exchange rate and significant fiscal deficits sparked a massive capital