Sweet and Salty: Colonial and Modern Corporate Commodity Exploitation in Northeastern Brazil

Sammanfattning: This thesis is a historical comparative analysis of the social and environmental impacts of past colonial exploitation and the modern corporate extraction and exploitation of natural resources and commodities. The thesis examines these issues through the case studies of sugar monoculture in the Northeast region of colonial Brazil (16th and 17th Century) and the sinking of Maceió (also in Northeastern Brazil) due to the corporate exploitation of rock salt mines (1976-2019). The research falls within the scope of larger topics such as extractivism in Latin America, Business and Human Rights, and coloniality/colonial durability. The goal of this study is to reflect on the shift of power in natural resource and commodity exploitation from colonial actors to the private sector. The study’s findings identify similarities between the human rights impacts of the exploitation of commodities in different periods of history in the same geographic area by different actors. This historical comparative analysis employs a decolonial theoretical framework that allows for reflections on the history and creation of the international human rights framework. More specifically, the analysis reflects on historical and contemporary matters of accountability for States and non-state actors. The study argues that if colonialism and the social and economic conditions it caused had not been overlooked or ignored in the creation of human rights, perhaps Business and Human Rights would have emerged earlier and been more fully developed today. As it moves forward, the Business and Human Rights field needs to take into account that the modern corporate actor cannot be dissociated from colonial history.