Cabral and Brazil The Portuguese occupation of Brazil occurred by accident. In , a grand procession of ships set out from Portugal for India, headed by Pedro Alvares Cabral. To avoid stormy seas, he made a wide loop around West Africa, and found to his surprise that he had reached the coast of present-day Brazil. As it happened, this eastern part of South America was within the section assigned on the map to Portugal by the Pope, so they regarded it as indisputably theirs.
The Portuguese were more eager to increase their trade with western India than with Brazil, which did not promise any gold. But there was one natural resource there which they exploited: timber. The brazilwood tree, after which the Europeans named the region, produced a beautiful red dye. The natives readily agreed to cut the trees and carry the logs to the ships in exchange for iron knives and saws, which they regarded as marvels.
(’For one sickle, knife or comb [they] would bring loads of hens, monkeys, parrots, honey, wax, cotton thread and whatever else these poor people had’.) ‘Why do you people, French and Portuguese, come from so far away to seek wood? Don’t you have wood in your country?’ a native asked a French priest. At the end of their discussion, he said ‘I can see that you are great madmen. You cross the sea and suffer great inconvenience A gold statuette of a woman, Peru.
This was found in a tomb which the Spanish missed, and therefore was not melted down. and work so hard to accumulate riches for your children. Is the land that nourished you not sufficient to feed them too? We have fathers, mothers and children whom we love.
But we are certain that after our death the land that nourished us will also feed them. We therefore rest without further cares.’ This trade in timber led to fierce battles between Portuguese and French traders. The Portuguese won because they decided to ‘settle’ in/ colonise the coast. In , the king of Portugal divided the coast of Brazil into