The alternating struggles for political independence in Brazil and Cuba.
             One may be stating the obvious by saying that both Cuba and Brazil are both Latin American countries when asked to make a comparison between the two. But this is one of a very shortlist of similarities between these two very alternating countries and this is mirrored in fact in their very different struggles for political independence. Although both struggles were long and arduous, they stemmed from very different origins. Brazils struggle has roots firmly planted in its geographical history aswell as its geographical positioning, while Cuba on the other hand relies firmly on its political activism and civilian opposition and uprising to gain its political independence.
             From the landing of the first Europeans in Brazil in the sixteenth century the countries abundance of natural resources was immensely obvious, but this is not to say that Cuba was not rich in resources also but it came nowhere near to sharing the natural wealth Brazil gleamed with and as a result did not rely on its natural resources as a stepping stone to gain a political utopia.
             The first resource to be tapped by the new inhabitants of Brazil was the short-lived and short-sighted mining of mercury. It was unbeknownst to the people at the time however that the mercury would cause serious health implications in centuries to come, causing political uproar due to poisoning of remote Indian tribes. However, oddly enough the first mercury mine was found in Peru and named the potosi mine. It was however a very small mine by today's standards which used "mita" or forced labour, and had very primitive mining tools so needless to say it was closed less than a half century after its opening in the 1620's. Brazil's mercury mining however stood the test of time in the more remote areas and on a very small scale had kept going until the early 1800's when its health h...