Editing Amerindian Genocide (section)

==== Genocide in Brazil ====
Inspired by the Spanish colonization of the Americas, [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] colonized Brazil for the Portuguese Empire in 1500. Over the following century the native tribes suffered massive depopulation due to ethnic violence and smallpox introduced by the Portuguese, who enslaved them in a system similar to ''encomienda'' and forced them to cut down the forest for tropical hardwoods. When slaves began to die at a higher rate due to poor treatment, the Portuguese disguised themselves as Jesuits (who were welcomed by the natives due to being less likely to mistreat them) in order to gain access to native villages, where they would abduct and enslave as many natives as they could, killing any who resisted. It is estimated that abuses by the Portuguese led the Brazilian population to drop by over 90%.

It is estimated that around 80 tribal groups residing in Brazil were wiped out to extinction within the first half of the 20th century. In other cases, encroachment by loggers and cattle ranchers led to outright massacres against uncontacted tribes to the point of near extinction, such as an Ankutsu tribe being massacred by a party of cattle ranchers in 1990, leaving only seven survivors and the village being bulldozed by FUNAI agents to conceal the evidence. To this day, encroachment into the Amazon rainforest by miners and loggers continues to threaten the cultural way of life for the indigenous peoples of Brazil.