by SUZANNE CORDS
A lot of work awaited the German immigrants in their new homeland – Image: Arquivo Histórico Ferreira da Silva
The aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, failed harvests and oppressive tax burdens made life difficult for people in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century.
Then came a tempting offer from the other side of the world — 77 hectares of land for every family willing to settle in Brazil. Plus livestock, seeds and agricultural equipment, as well as financial assistance for the first two years.
It is more than many German farmers, craftsmen and day laborers ever dared to hope for at home. Soon the first of them responded to the call to say goodbye to their old home.
Wanted: Workers in former Portuguese colony
In January 1824, a ship named Argus arrived at the port of Rio de Janeiro with around 280 people on board. It was the first ship carrying Germans “in the service of the Brazilian Empire.”
The new arrivals settled in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, and on July 25, 1824, established the city of São Leopoldo, named after the Brazilian Emperor’s Austrian wife Leopoldine. In fact, she had campaigned for the recruitment of Germans to Brazil.
The South American country had moved on from being a Portuguese colony just two years prior and the decision by Emperor Dom Pedro I to take in the immigrants was not just a goodwill gesture. He wanted them to fight, if necessary, against Brazil’s enemies, but above all he needed settlers to farm in the south of the country.
“The end of slavery was in sight, and the question arose as to where to get new workers,” historian Stefan Rinke from the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin said. “People knew that slavery could no longer be maintained in the long term and that it was becoming increasingly difficult to obtain supplies due to the British blockade of the slave trade. And that’s when they turned their attention to the German territories. They knew that there were many poor people there who were also under pressure to emigrate.”
The policy of ‘whitening’ in Brazil
At the time, Brazil’s elite was pursuing another goal with its immigration policy. they wanted to “whiten” their country.
“Progress was equated with Europeanization, both of customs and traditions, but also specifically of the population,” says Rinke. “They wanted Europeans. And not all Europeans, but above all Central Europeans, because they were considered particularly virtuous, hardworking, ambitious and obedient — not unimportant if you wanted new subjects.”
Over the course of the next century, around 250,000 Germans would find a new home more than 10,000 kilometers (more than 6,200 miles) from their homeland.
Brazzil for more