From Conquest to Colony

This audiobook offers a new history of eighteenth-century Brazil, emphasizing debates about wealth, societal differences, and governance. Through archival records and print culture, Kirsten Schultz explores how the Portuguese crown shaped Brazil as a colony focused on gold extraction and economic growth, while managing the diverse societies of Indigenous peoples, Africans, Europeans, and varying social classes. It reveals how governance sought to align Brazil’s complex social fabric with Portuguese imperial ambitions.