ABSTRACT
Although it had been traversed and occupied by indigenous peoples for centuries, the large area of the Americas that would become the nation known to people all over the world as Brazil was not formally discovered and claimed by Europeans until 1500. 1 The encounter occurred when a Portuguese fleet en route to India sighted an unknown land to the west on April 22, 1500. On coming ashore two days later the leader of the expedition, Pedro Álvares Cabral, declared the territory to be the possession of the king of Portugal. The land therefore became part of the Portuguese overseas empire, and its history for the next three centuries would be greatly influenced and shaped by Portuguese political, economic and cultural values and requirements.
