Two to five million Indigenous people occupied what is now Brazil. After gaining the right to Brazil, the Portuguese sent Pedro Alvares Cabral, a Portuguese admiral to claim the land. When Cabral and his men arrived in Brazil around the year 1500, they encountered many of those Indigenous groups. The Portuguese were quick to start settling and changing the rich culture that the Natives had already established. Slaves were brought in from Africa, new cities were founded, buisnesses were started, and Portuguese missionaries started converting the Indigenous people. Portugal ruled Brazil for many years to come. Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal caused the Portuguese royal family to retreat to Brazil. In 1821the king returned to Portugal leaving his son Pedro in charge. Not even a year later, Pedro declared Brazil independent and crowned himself emperor. After 350 years, slavery was finally abolished in 1888. Following WWI Brazil continued suffering from economic problems that had been an issue for about fifty years. This led to a coup which prompted Getúlio Vargas’s rise to power.  Following an uprising against the government in 1935, Vargas created a dictatorship in Brazil which lasted ten years until he resigned. Though he was reelected in 1950, he committed suicide in 1954 due to growing political unrest. By the late 20th century Brazil had reverted to a full democracy. In the early 2000s, the economy started to improve slowly and Brazil even earned a spot on the United National Security Council under the rule of Lula da Sliva. In 2018 Bolsonaro was elected president. Bolsonaro remained popular until the outbreak of COVID-19 when he took a very anti-lockdown and vaccine stance. This ended in Brazil taking the 2nd spot for most deaths due to COVID. At the next election, da Silva won for a second time and is the current serving president of Brazil. A week later, Bolsonaro's supporters stormed government offices and structures causing extreme damage.