Brazil has been a classic example of plantation society. In recent years, however, a new Brazil has been emerging in a process vividly described by Charles Wagley as "the Brazilian Revolution", by which the old society has been transformed as new groups have gradually risen from industry, commerce, the professions, and the bureaucracy, until the overall Brazilian society no longer bears the stamp of plantation society.

In this paper an attempt will be made to show how the plantation developed into the organizing force of Brazilian society throughout the Colonial and Empire periods by extending its form and control patterns to the larger society which surrounded it. By the end of the nineteenth century, due to a series of crises, economic, social, and political, the classic plantation system underwent modifications which, if they had gone unchecked, would have strengthened it more than ever.