<P> Until 1529 Portugal had very little interest in Brazil mainly due to the high profits gained through its commerce with India, China, and the East Indies . This lack of interest allowed traders, pirates, and privateers of several countries to poach profitable Brazilwood in lands claimed by Portugal, so the Portuguese Crown devised a system to effectively occupy Brazil, without paying the costs . Through the hereditary Captaincies system, Brazil was divided into strips of land that were donated to Portuguese noblemen, who were in turn responsible for the occupation and administration of the land and answered to the king . The system was a failure--only four lots were successfully occupied Pernambuco, São Vicente (later called São Paulo), Captaincy of Ilhéus and Captaincy of Porto Seguro . The captaincies gradually reverted to the Crown and became provinces and eventually states of the country . </P> <P> The Tamoyo Confederation (Confederação dos Tamoios in Portuguese language) was a military alliance of aboriginal chieftains of the sea coast ranging from what is today Santos to Rio de Janeiro, which occurred from 1554 to 1567 . </P> <P> The main reason for this rather unusual alliance between separate tribes was to react against slavery and wholesale murder and destruction wrought by the early Portuguese discoverers and colonisers of Brazil onto the Tupinambá people . In the Tupi language, "Tamuya" means "elder" or "grandfather". Cunhambebe was elected chief of the Confederation by his counterparts, and together with chiefs Pindobuçú, Koakira, Araraí and Aimberê, declared war on the Portuguese . </P> <P> Starting in the sixteenth century, sugarcane grown on plantations called engenhos along the northeast coast (Brazil's Nordeste) became the base of Brazilian economy and society, with the use of slaves on large plantations to make sugar for export to Europe . At first, settlers tried to enslave the natives as labor to work the fields . Portugal had pioneered the plantation system the Atlantic islands of Madeira and São Tomé, with forced labor, high capital inputs of machinery, slaves, and work animals . The extensive cultivation of sugar was for an export market, necessitating land that could be acquired with relatively little conflict from existing occupants . By 1570, Brazil's sugar output rivaled that of the Atlantic islands . In the mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch seized productive areas of northeast Brazil, from 1630--1654, and took over the plantations . When the Dutch were expelled from Brazil, following a strong push by Luso - Brazilians and their indigenous and Afro - Brazilian allies, the Dutch as well as the English and French set up sugar production on the plantation model of Brazil in the Caribbean . Increased production and competition meant that the price of sugar dropped, and Brazil's market share dropped . Brazil's recovery from the Dutch incursion was slow since warfare had taken its toll on sugar plantations . In Bahia, tobacco was cultivated for the African export market, with tobacco dipped in molasses (derived from sugar production) was traded for African slaves . Brazil's settlement and economic development was largely on its lengthy coastline . The Dutch incursion had underlined the vulnerability of Brazil to foreigners, and the crown responded by building coastal forts and creating a marine patrol to protect the colony . </P>

When was brazil established with its current name