BUS 3234 - Brazil and the Global Economy

Brazil today is an economic and cultural powerhouse with a global presence and a cutting-edge technology sector. Yet it entered the world economy in 1500 as a minor appendage to an impoverished empire. How Brazil went from Portuguese colonial backwater to global leader is the subject of this course. The emphasis is on economic history and transoceanic exchange. Major themes and topics include globalization, export-led growth and the issue of colonial dependence, the rise of merchant capital and the influence of credit and debt, nineteenth-century transformations in land, labor, and property rights, the twentieth-century intensification of inequality and political instability, interconnections between technology, education, and industrial development, and contemporary conflicts over energy and environmental policy, web technology and cyber crime,and the growth of Brazil's aerospace industry. The course culminates in an examination of the Lula era. Throughout, connections will be made between events in Brazil and economic developments elsewhere in Latin America, as well as in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia.