(Re) Discovery of Brazil

Abstract

As we all learned in Brazilian schools, Portuguese navigators arrived in Brazil in 1500. Since then, this event has been the subject of controversies (coincidence? Navigators' intentions?) And disputes (who would have preceded them? French? Africans?). Above the controversy, what is still being taught is that the fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral made Portugal's first official contact with the new land at 16° South and identified it as Del Rey possession, even naming it: Holy Cross´ Land.