This month, Brazil celebrated the 500th birthday of a country renowned for its colourful and vibrant multiracial culture.

But there is a darker side to Brazil, built on the back of history's largest forced migration of slaves. In a frontier atmosphere, especially cruel treatment was meted out to slaves, yet there wasn't the ethnic exclusivity that occurred elsewhere, with male settlers often marrying indigenous or African women, in the process creating a new mixed race.
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BBC History Magazine: available monthly, priced £2.95 from newsagents.