History of Brazil
Colonial period
Understand the plantation system (engenho, sugar, slavery), the capitanias hereditárias, and the pacto colonial. Traps: confusing entradas (interior, from coast) with bandeiras (São Paulo, slave-hunting and mineral search), and misdating the União Ibérica (1580–1640), which weakened the Treaty of Tordesillas line.
Empire
Key markers: 1808 transfer of the Portuguese court, 1822 Independence, 1824 Constitution (Poder Moderador), Abdication 1831, Regency revolts (Cabanagem, Farroupilha, Sabinada, Balaiada), Second Reign (coffee, Lei Eusébio de Queirós 1850, Lei do Ventre Livre 1871, Lei dos Sexagenários 1885, Lei Áurea 1888), Proclamation of the Republic 1889.
Republic
Old Republic (coronelismo, política dos governadores, café com leite), 1930 Revolution, Estado Novo (1937–45), populism (Vargas, JK, Jango), 1964 military coup, AI-5 1968, abertura, 1988 Constitution.
Traps
Items often invert causes and consequences (e.g., Lei Eusébio de Queirós freeing capital for industry) or misattribute the política dos governadores to Floriano Peixoto rather than Campos Sales.
Worked example
Asked why abolition accelerated industrialization, the correct chain is: end of slave trade (1850) released capital → abolition (1888) freed wage labor → coffee surpluses financed early industry.