This volume highlights factors that led to the onset of the U.S. presence within colonial Brazil’s mercantilist economy and then the independent Brazilian empire’s agricultural, scientific, religious and educational institutions.
The book examines the interaction of U.S. businessmen, explorers, scientists, immigrants, missionaries, and educators with the dominant institutions of the Luso-Brazilian empires. Employing an institutionalist framework to describe the interplay between forces of change versus forces of inertia that conditioned the economic and sociocultural development of the two empires, the book explains how Portuguese and Brazilian technical innovators employed contacts with the United States for more than a century to attempt to alter Brazil’s economy and society.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of U.S.-Brazil relations and Latin American history more generally.
By:
Earl Richard Downes
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781032853956
ISBN 10: 1032853956
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 02 April 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction 1. The Prelude: The Luso-Brazilian Agricultural Renaissance and the United States, 1770–1808 2. The Court Transfers to Brazil 3. Henry Hill, the Would-be Fazendeiro 4. Defining Imperial Brazil’s Economic Priorities 5. The Commission Merchant Extends the Coffee Trade 6. Exploring Brazil’s Natural Riches for Science, Profit, and Colonization 7. Opening the Doors for Reform, 1850–1860 8. The Introduction of U.S. Immigrants, Cultivars, and Equipment 9. The Arrival of U.S. Engineers and Science Technicians 10. The Coffee Trade Generates Financial Benefits 11. The U.S. Missionaries and Brazil’s Religious Institution 12. The United States and the Empire’s Educational Institutions. Conclusion
Earl Richard Downes (1947–2024) was an Independent Researcher whose previous affiliations included Associate Dean at William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University; Senior Research Associate, North-South Center, University of Miami; Adjunct Professor of International Relations, Florida International University; and Associate Professor of History, USAF Academy. Rafael R. Ioris is Professor of Latin American History at the University of Denver. He has published books, articles and book chapters on various dimensions of Brazil’s economic, political, intellectual, and diplomatic histories, and on the role played by US actors in the course of Brazil’s and Latin America’s development.
