Bandeirant

The expeditions of the Bandeirans, or Bandeira, were not organized by the authorities, they were attended by private individuals who provided themselves with everything necessary for traveling independently. They went to the selva for months and years. The city of São Paulo was the base of most of the famous Bandeira, in this regard, Bandeirants are also known as Paulists .

In addition to hijacking into slavery of the Indians, the banderands were engaged in the assertion of Portuguese authority in the interior of Brazil. Bandeira provided the Portuguese with control over local mineral resources. The expeditions were difficult and dangerous, their members were faced with hunger and disease. Due to a lack of food, bandeirans planted plants and collected provisions along the way, they also laid roads and built settlements, that is, they began the economic development of the interior of Brazil.

Despite the fact that the Jesuits were the main opponents of the Bandeirans, a priest went with each bandeira to absolve the dying and to calm the conscience of the living participants. Before leaving for the expedition, a mass was always served.

When the Portuguese government awarded a gold and silver exploration award in Brazil in the 1660s, the bandeirantes took up this along with stealing the Indians into slavery, and since the number of free Indians decreased markedly, after a while they completely switched to searching for precious metals.

Bandeirants often used the “ divide and conquer ” tactic: they pitted the Indian tribes among themselves, and then captured the Indians weakened by hostility. In turn, they had other ways to turn into slaves a lot of Indians, with little loss. Sometimes the banderands impersonated the Jesuits and celebrated Mass in order to lure the Indians from the settlements. One way or another, the banderands relied on surprise. If this did not succeed, they surrounded the Indian village and set fire to expel the Indians. The captured banderands were placed in special pens and kept there until they collected enough prisoners to travel back. This had to wait weeks and months, during which time hundreds of future slaves were dying. During the transition, the prisoners were stripped and tied to a long pole to avoid escapes.

At the beginning of the XVI century , about 2.5 million Indians lived in Brazil , and by the middle of the XVIII century their number is estimated at 1-1.5 million. Some tribes living near the Atlantic coast became extinct from disease or mingled with the Portuguese , others went deep into the continent. In the already developed part of Brazil, there was a shortage of labor that could not be supplied by the supply of slaves from Africa. Despite the fact that Negroes were more valuable in their operational qualities, there was a persistent demand for Indian slaves. A Negro was 10 or more times more expensive than an Indian, which did not prevent the Bandeirant from making huge profits.

Famous banderand Bartolomeu Buen da Silva , Fernand Diaz Pais , Antoniu Rodrigis Arzhan , António Piris di Campus and Bartolomeu Bueno di Siqueira .

In 1628, António Rapozo Tavaris led the Bandeira, in which 2,000 Allied Indians, 900 Métis and 69 White from São Paulo participated. During this expedition, most of the Jesuit missions in Guair were destroyed and about 60,000 Indians were hijacked.

From 1648 to 1652, Tavaris led one of the longest bandeirs from Sao Paulo to the mouth of the Amazon , explored many of its tributaries, including the Rio Negro , and covered more than 10,000 km . In 1651, he reached Quito and spent some time there. Of the 1,200 members of the expedition to Belen , only 60 reached. In 1652, they returned to Sao Paulo. As a result of this trip, Portugal claimed the vast territory in the Amazon.

The document of 1754 (the so-called Manuscript 512 ), written by the leader of an unknown Bandeira who set off in search of gold mines, described a lost dead city in unexplored areas of Brazil ^[2] . Modern Brazilian scholars talk about " the biggest myth of Brazilian archeology ." The description of the ruins of the dead city, left by an unknown author, repeatedly inspired researchers (in particular, Percy Fawcett in 1925 ) to search for him.

• Colonial Brazil
• Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante

Comments

Sources

• Alperovich M.S. , Slezkin L. Yu. History of Latin America (from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century). Textbook for high schools. - 2nd, rev. and additional .. - M .: Higher. school, 1991 .-- 286 p. - 25,000 copies. - ISBN 5-06-002003-7 .