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22 April 1500Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Cabral Lands in Brazil

A Portuguese fleet bound for India sails too far west and claims a new coastline for the Portuguese crown

On the timeline · around 22 April 1500 · Conquest and CircumnavigationCrossing the AtlanticConquest and CircumnavigationCabral Lands in Brazil149814991500150115021503150415051506

Quick facts

Navigator
Pedro Alvares Cabral
Fleet
13 ships, about 1,200 men
Landfall
Porto Seguro, Bahia
Claim
Land claimed for Portugal under Tordesillas

What happened

Pedro Alvares Cabral left Lisbon on 9 March 1500 commanding 13 ships and about 1,200 men, including the veteran navigator Bartolomeu Dias, bound for India along da Gama's route. Sailing far southwest into the Atlantic to catch favorable winds around Africa, Cabral's fleet reached an unfamiliar coastline instead. Realizing this was not India, the fleet anchored at Porto Seguro on the coast of what is now the Brazilian state of Bahia. Cabral's men went ashore and erected a large wooden cross to claim the land for Portugal, and Cabral sent a ship back to Portugal to report the discovery before continuing on to India himself.

Why it matters

Cabral's accidental landfall gave Portugal its claim to Brazil under the line already drawn by the Treaty of Tordesillas six years earlier, since the coast he found fell on Portugal's side of the meridian. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony for over three centuries, the reason Portuguese, not Spanish, is Brazil's language today.

How we know

The Mariners' Museum's Ages of Exploration entry on Cabral describes the fleet's size, the accidental landfall, and the ceremony claiming the land at Porto Seguro.

Sources

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