Portuguese colonization of the Americas
Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Earth, outside Europe, in 1494 into Spanish (Castilian) and Portuguese global territorial hemispheres for exclusive conquest and colonization. Portugal colonized parts of South America (mostly Brazil), but also some failed attempts to colonize North America in present day Canada.
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[edit] Settlements in North America
In 1501 and 1502, the Corte-Real brothers explored Newfoundland and Labrador and claimed it to the Portuguese Crown. Soon, in 1506, King Manuel I created taxes for the fisheries of cod in Newfoundland bays. The colony of João Álvares Fagundes in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia was only five years old when it was abandoned. The foreign invasion of the homelands of the indigenous people was met with resistance and the main cause of the intruding project's failure.
[edit] Colonization of Brazil
Explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral landed on April 22, 1500 in what is today Porto Seguro, Brazil. Permanent habitation did not begin until São Vicente was founded in 1532, although temporary trading posts were established earlier to collect brazilwood, used as a dye.
With permanent settlement came the establishment of the sugar cane industry and its intensive labor demands which were met with Native and later African slaves. The capital, Salvador, was established in 1549 at the Bay of All Saints. The first Jesuits arrived the same year.
From 1565 through 1567, Mem de Sá, a Portuguese colonial official and the third Governor General of Brazil, successfully destroyed a ten year-old French colony called France Antarctique, at Guanabara Bay. He and his nephew, Estácio de Sá, then founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1567.
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Between 1630 and 1654, the Netherlands came to control part of Brazil's Northeast region, with their capital in Recife. The Portuguese won a significant victory in the Second Battle of Guararapes in 1649. By 1654, the Netherlands had surrendered and returned control of all Brazilian land to the Portuguese.
Unlike the Spanish, the Portuguese did not divide their colonial territory in America. The captaincies they created were subdued to a centralized administration in Salvador which reported directly to the Crown in Lisbon. Therefore, it is not common to refer to "Portuguese America" (like Spanish America, Dutch America, etc.), but rather to Brazil, as a unified colony since its very beginnings.[dubious ]
As a result, Brazil did not split into several states by the time of Independence (1822), as happened to its Spanish-speaking neighbors. The adoption of monarchy instead of federal republic in the first six decades of Brazilian political sovereignty also contributed to the nation's unity.
[edit] See also
- Colonial Brazil
- Jesuit Reductions
- Atlantic World
- History of Brazil
- Portugal in the period of discoveries
- Former colonies and territories in Canada
[edit] References and external links
- The Corte-Real explorations of North America in the official Library and Archives Canada website.
- João Álvares Fagundes in the official Library and Archives Canada website.
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