The collapse of the first major export industry in Portuguese Brazil was due to competition from a Mexican product, specifically sugar, which was also being produced in the Caribbean and Mexico, leading to a decline in Brazilian sugar's dominance in the market.

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In Portuguese Brazil

Question 8

Multiple Choice

A) Competition from a Mexican product led to the collapse of the first major export industry.
B) The surviving indigenous population kept control of the coasts, forcing the Portuguese and African slaves up the rivers into the interior.
C) The colonists invented a new model of slave labor and sugar plantations that they then replicated in other colonies such as Madeira.
D) The indigenous Tupí were much more numerous and their demographic collapse much less severe than in Spanish America, making indigenous people a preponderant factor over the African presence.

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