Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
From the 16th to the early 19th century, Brazil was created and expanded as a colony, kingdom and an integral part of the Portuguese Empire. Brazil was briefly named "Land of the Holy Cross" by Portuguese explorers and crusaders before being named "Land of Brazil" by the Brazilian-Portuguese settlers and merchants dealing with brazilwood.
During the 17th century, most Portuguese settlers in Brazil, who throughout the entire colonial period tended to originate from Northern Portugal, [5] moved to the northeastern part of the country to establish the first sugar plantations.
The Portuguese discovery of Brazil was preceded by a series of treaties between the kings of Portugal and Castile, following Portuguese sailings down the coast of Africa to India and the voyages to the Caribbean of the Genoese mariner sailing for Castile, Christopher Columbus. The most decisive of these treaties was the Treaty of Tordesillas ...
Under their discipline, and later the governorship of Governor-General, Mem de Sá (1557–72), the colonies began to reverse the unworkable policies: by 1580, Brazil had become an economically viable colony. [4] Over time, the Brazilian donatários were replaced by royal administrators, until the system was abolished by 1754.
The Captaincies of Brazil (Portuguese: Capitanias do Brasil) were captaincies of the Portuguese Empire, [Note 1] administrative divisions and hereditary fiefs of Portugal in the colony of Terra de Santa Cruz, [Note 2] later called Brazil, on the Atlantic coast of northeastern South America.
Bandeirantes (Portuguese: [bɐ̃dejˈɾɐ̃tʃis]; lit. ' flag-carriers '; singular: bandeirante) were settlers in colonial Brazil who participated in expeditions to expand the colony's borders and subjugate indigenous peoples during the early modern period.
A process of miscegenation between Portuguese settlers and indigenous women also occurred. [19] It is estimated that of the 2.5 million indigenous peoples who had lived in the region which now comprises Brazil, less than 10 percent survived to the 1600s. [2]
When the Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil in the 16th century, the Tupi were the first indigenous group to have contact with them. Soon, a process of mixing between Portuguese settlers and indigenous women started. The Portuguese colonists rarely brought women, making the native women the "breeding matrix of the Brazilian people". [6]