Cabral Sights Brazil: Portuguese Colonization Begins
Pedro Alvares Cabral's fleet of 13 ships, sailing to India via the western Atlantic route, sighted the coast of Brazil on April 22, 1500, near present-day Porto Seguro in Bahia state. Whether the landfall was accidental or intentional remains debated; Cabral may have been following secret Portuguese knowledge of the coast or simply pushed westward by currents and winds. He claimed the territory for King Manuel I of Portugal, naming it the Island of the True Cross. The discovery fell within Portugal's sphere under the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, which had divided the non-European world between Spain and Portugal. Cabral stayed only ten days before continuing to India. Brazil would become the crown jewel of Portugal's empire and now has 215 million people.
April 22, 1500
526 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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