Brazil gained its independance from portugal. Becuase the french had invaded Portugal, forcing the royal family to flee to their Brazilian colonies. Once these nobles and portugese royality established themselves in Brazil they started developing the educational system and its cultures, leading to the independence in 1822.
In 1860 Brazil had only 140 miles of railroad; by 1865 that number had increased to 4,330 miles of railroad. Because of the effect on the infustructure, I must say that coffee was a major export item, and had a bigger impact on the economy than sugar or gold.
Brazil was already free from colonialism from the Portugese because the Dutch who controled the European sugar market, eventually took over the Portugese monopoly in South America. Because Portugal had to do business with the Dutch to bring their sugar into europe, the Dutch had alot of knowlegde of how things worked in Brazil. In 1580 Portugal was incorporated into Spain until 1640, a country that the Dutch were at war with. The Dutch controled all the portugese sugar production in the north east of brazil during this time, and eventually took there newely aquired know-how for manufacturing sugar to the Caribbean. That was the begining of the end for the Portugese. They were forced to try and explore Brazil's territories for precious minerals like gold.
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