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Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches the coast of Brazil

22 April 1500·Exploration & colonisation·Brazil (South America); Kingdom of Portugal·
22 April 1500Date
Exploration & colonisationCategory
31Empires active
Date
22 April 1500
Category
Exploration & colonisation
Region
Brazil (South America); Kingdom of Portugal
Era
Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

On 22 April 1500 a Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, bound for India along Vasco da Gama's route, made landfall on the coast of present-day Bahia in South America. Whether the westward deflection was an accident of winds and currents or a deliberate reconnaissance remains debated.

Cabral claimed the land for Portugal, naming it the Island of the True Cross, and dispatched a ship home to report the discovery before continuing to India. Because the Treaty of Tordesillas had shifted the demarcation line westward, the new territory fell within the Portuguese sphere, providing a legal foundation for the colony of Brazil. Initial Portuguese interest centred on brazilwood dye, but within decades sugar plantations worked by enslaved Indigenous and African labour would make Brazil a cornerstone of the Atlantic economy and the largest single destination of the transatlantic slave trade.

See the world map in 22 April 1500 →More exploration & colonisationThe Post-Classical / Medieval era

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Further reading

The wider story

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

Roger Crowley

Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.

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