Colonial Brazil

By: Thunyarath Munyukong

• In the History of Brazil, Colonial Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to United Kingdom with Portugal.

• In 1494, Spain and Portugal divided the New World between them, and in 1500 navigator Pedro ÁlvaresCabral landed in what is now Brazil and laid claim to it in the name of King Manuel I of Portugal.

• The most decisive of these treaties was the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, that created the TordesillasMeridian, dividing the world between those two kingdoms.

• On April 22, 1500, during the reign of King Manuel I, a fleet led by navigator Pedro ÁlvaresCabral landed in Brazil and took possession of the land in the name of the king.

• The Portuguese realized that some European countries, especially France, were also sending excursions to the land to extract brazil wood.