It takes place on the afternoon of April 22, 1500, when the squadron of ten ships and three caravels, commanded by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral, reached the southern coast of Bahia, 44 days after leaving Portugal.
Disembarkation only takes place the following day and, on April 26, the first mass is celebrated in Brazil.
On May 1st, with the celebration of the second mass in front of a large wooden cross marked with the royal coat of arms, Cabral officially took possession of the new land and, on the 2nd, continued his journey to the Indies.
Chance of discovery
Until now, there is no complete knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese in 1500. However, the hypothesis of chance has been ruled out, according to which Cabral's fleet would have strayed from its route and, unintentionally, found the Brazilian coast. . Since the beginning of the 15th century, Portugal has sent expeditions to the South Atlantic and its navigators were well aware of the directions and directions of sea currents between the African and American continents.
They knew about the existence of the descending current (Canaries), which allows coastal navigation across the African continent to the Gulf of Guinea, and the ascending current (Benguela), which reverses the direction of vessels. To reach southern Africa, Portuguese navigators moved away from the coast, avoiding winds and ascending currents, and corrected their route, pushed by the descending current called the Brazilian Current, which passes through the Brazilian Northeast and reaches the south of the African continent.
Intentionality of discovery
Doubts remain regarding the antecedents of the discovery and the true objectives of Cabral's expedition. But Portugal knew about the existence of lands to the west since 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in America, and tried to secure part of the lands through the Treaty of Tordesillas, in 1494. It has information on later Spanish expeditions, some of which would have coasted the current Northeast Brazilian. And, immediately after Vasco da Gama's return from the Indias, in 1499, he secretly sent the cosmographer and navigator Duarte Pacheco Pereira to retrace his route and explore the “fourth part”, the western quadrant of the South Atlantic.
The same Duarte Pacheco Pereira took part in Cabral's expedition in 1500, whose probable purpose was, in addition to continuing commercial operations in the Indies, to confirm explorations and take public and official possession of the new lands. Portugal seeks to outwit potential competitors and hide its previous knowledge of the land and intention of possession, avoiding hoisting the traditional royal stone coat of arms on the caravels that make up Cabral's fleet.
General Understanding about the Discovery of Brazil
The Discovery of Brazil is an important moment in the process of Portuguese maritime and commercial expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries. Seeking to expand its limits of political and commercial activity, Portugal turned to the Atlantic, initially exploring nearby islands and the African coast. With the support of the mercantile bourgeoisie and the crusading nobility, the State developed a powerful navigation structure – implemented in the Escola de Sagres do Infante Dom Henrique – to bring gold, ivory and slaves from Africa and, from the Indies, cloves, cinnamon and pepper, the famous and profitable spices.
The dispute between European kingdoms for the lands of the American continent, part of the expansion of commercial capitalism, began with Portugal and Spain at the forefront, and drove the discovery and colonization of the New World.
