5000BC Traces of first american-indian civilisations.

1500AD First european expedition led by Admiral Alvares Cabral of Portugal

1600AD Continued attacks by French and Dutch leads to the expansion of settlements in what is now the Bahia area

1807 Napolionic wars start triggering the growth of modern Brazil, as Portugal is invaded by France. The Portugese royal family and government relocate to Brazil under British protection. They relocate government to Rio de Janeiro

1821 king joao returns to lisbon, leaving his son, dom pedro as regent. within the year dom pedro leads a campaign for indipendence, backed again by the british, which lisbon is forced to accept.

1889 Dom pedro is overthrown and a republic is introduced, marked by continual regional infighting.

1930 Getulio Vargas starts his stint as elected president. he holds power until 1954, twice as elected president, twice as dictator. this indicated the instability of this era.

1960 left winger joao goulart comes to power, and in 1964 (with help from the US) the army takes over power, hearalding over 2 decades of military rule.

1980 pressure for civilian rule mounts, especially after the end of argentinas milliatary dictatorship.

1985 elections are held, tancredo neves becomes the first civilian president in 21 years, although he dies before taking office. deputy jose sarney takes over, and succesfully negotiates the tricky transition between military and public rule.

1989 neves is defeated by conservative fernando collor de mello

1992 rio de janeiro hosts worlds first 'earth summit'

1994 fernando enrique cardoso becomes president for 2 terms, and spends most of his time fire fighting the economy to stop it's downward spiral.

2002 the people of brazil are tired by the last 2 terms of finacial instability and turn to Luis Inacio da Silva (known as ‘Lula’) a left wing trade unionist with a large following amongst poorer brazilians . The task however is monumental, although commited to a program of social and economic reform, the fragileness of the governments hold of the economy was shown when lula was expected to win, market activity brought the economy to the brink of disaster. Things now, however, have stabalised and look much better for the future.