focused on war.The biggest of the quilombos, the Quilombo dos Palmares, consisted of many villages mostly of African slaves though they also consisted of other ethnicities and lasted for more than a century, resisting, often outnumbered, many colonial attacks. This quilombo resisted at least 24 small attacks and 18 great colonial invasions. Portuguese soldiers sometimes stated it took more than one dragoon to capture a quilombo warrior, since they would defend themselves with a strangely moving fighting technique. The governor from that province declared "it is harder to defeat a quilombo than the dutch invaders".[2] UrbanizationThings in the colony began to change when the prince and future king Dom Joao VI, along with the whole Portuguese court, escaped to Brazil in 1808 due to Portugal being invaded by Napoleonic troops. The colony, a mere source of natural resources, would finally begin to develop as a nation.[3] The Portuguese monopoly effectively came to an end when Brazilian ports opened for trade with foreign nations.[4] Cities would grow in importance and Brazilian people could finally get the permission to manufacture common products once imported from Portugal, like glass.[3]Registries of Capoeira test practices existed since the 18th century in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife, but the huge increase of urban slaves and social life in Brazilian cities gave Capoeira a greater notoriety and diffusion capacity. In Rio the use of Capoeira was getting so problematic that the colonial government established severe physical punishments to its practice.[5] In his book, Matthias Rohrig Assuncao provided ample data from police records, dating back to the 1800s, demonstrating that Capoeira was an important reason to detain slaves and free coloured individuals. "From 288 slaves that entered the Calabouco jail during the years 1857 and 1858, 80 (31%) were arrested for Capoeira, and only 28 (10.7%) for running away. Out of 4,303 arrests in Rio police jail in 1862, 404 detainees -- nearly 10% -- had been arrested for Capoeira." [6] The end of slavery and prohibitionOriginal Lei Aurea documentAt the end of the 19th century, slavery in the Brazilian Empire was already doomed for many reasons, among them the ever increasing number of slave's escapes and the frequent raids by quilombo militias on properties which still adopted slavery. The Empire tried to soften the problems with laws that would restrict slavery, but Brazil would inevitably recognize its end on May 13, 1888, with a law called Lei Aurea, sanctioned by imperial parliament and signed by princess Isabel.Free, black people would soon find themselves abandoned. A vast majority had nowhere to live, no job and were despised by Brazilian society, which usually saw them as lazy workers.[7][8] The increase of European and Asian workers of that time would diminish job opportunities even more and many black people would become marginalized. With them, naturally, the Capoeira.[8][9]It was inevitable that Capoeira practitioners would start using their abilities in unconventional ways. Many began to use Capoeira as body guards, mercenaries, hitmen, henchmen. Groups of Capoeira practitioners, known as maltas, used to terrorize Rio de Janeiro. In little time, in 1890, the recently