ABSTRACT
In 1500, when a Portuguese fleet under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral laid anchor at Porto Seguro in what is now the Bay of Bahia, Europeans officially “discovered” Brazil. Cabral disembarked, planted the flag, and claimed the territory in the name of the Crown. Then he and his armada proceeded on to the Orient, their original destination. The objective of the voyage was to secure trading arrangements for the valuable commercial goods that Vasco da Gama had reported finding there after his historic voyage around the Cape of Good Hope the year before.
