Brazil grew from dye trees to a continental empire
Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral reached these shores on 22 April 1500 en route to India. Indigenous nations had lived here for millennia; Luzia Woman's remains suggest habitation at least 11,000 years ago. A colony built on brazilwood dye became the Americas' largest contiguous territory.
Early Amazon pottery near Santarém, radiocarbon-dated about 8,000 years old, challenged the idea that tropical forests could not support complex prehistoric cultures. Marajoara society on Marajó island produced elaborate painted pottery and mound earthworks; debate continues over whether it migrated from the Andes or arose locally, possibly supporting populations near 100,000 through terra preta agriculture.
Pinzón reached Pernambuco on 26 January 1500—the oldest confirmed European landing—yet the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas blocked Spain from claiming the coast. Cabral claimed the land for Portugal in April. Early names included Santa Cruz and Terra dos Papagaios before brazilwood exports fixed the country's name. Portugal initially prioritized Asian trade; France Antarctique in 1555 prompted hereditary captaincies, later replaced by northern and southern governments based in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.
European diseases devastated Native peoples along trade routes, sometimes wiping out whole tribes before direct contact. The Tamoyo Confederation united coastal chiefs from Santos to Rio de Janeiro between 1554 and 1567 to resist Portuguese settlement. Portuguese settlers introduced rice, coffee, sugar, livestock, and intermarried with Indigenous and African populations.
Prince regent Pedro declared independence on 7 September 1822, founding the Empire of Brazil. A republic followed an 1889 coup; Getúlio Vargas ruled authoritatively from 1930 to 1945. Democracy returned briefly after 1945 until a 1964 U.S.-backed military coup; civilian rule resumed in 1985 after the so-called Brazilian Miracle under President Médici.
Source: History of Brazil
