On April 22, 1500, a Portuguese navigator called Pedro Alvares Cabral reached the shores of Brazil. The country took its name from “brazilwood”, a redwood tree commonly found along the Brazilian coastline that was ordinarily used to dye garments back in Europe.

While Spanish navigators set out in search of a route to Asia by sailing westward from Europe, Portuguese sailors opted instead for sailing progressively southward along the African coast. Portuguese navigators reached the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa in 1487, and in 1498, led by Vasco da Gama, opened the sea route from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and then to the Far East.

In 1494, the "Treaty of Tordesillas" between Spain and Portugal settled the dispute about lands yet to be discovered. According to the treaty, territories lying east of an imaginary north-south line located 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands would belong to Portugal, and lands to the west of that imaginary line would be under Spanish control. This division, extending from pole to pole, dissected the easternmost part of the South American continent and defined Brazil's first frontier (although the discovery by Pedro Alvares Cabral did not take place until six years later, in 1500). Brazil's territory as shaped by the meridian of Tordesillas can be seen on the maps below.

In 1578, the King of Portugal died and left no successor. Seizing this opportunity to claim the throne in Lisbon for himself, the Spanish King Philip II united Spain and Portugal, which remained under his rule from 1580 to 1640.

Ironically, the sixty-year union between Portugal and Spain triggered a substantial expansion of the Brazilian territory. With the absence of boundaries, both Portuguese and Brazilian settlers began moving westward and further into Brazil’s hinterland, thus unwittingly expanding the borders of the future independent country.

The main starting point for these explorations was the region of São Vicente in present-day São Paulo. These explorers were known as "Bandeirantes".  

In 1640, the Duke of Bragança, later Joao IV, was able to reclaim the Portuguese Crown, with the assistance of England and Holland. The lands that had been occupied west of the original Tordesillas remained in Portuguese hands afterwards.

In the beginning, Brazil’s economy relied primarily on sugar production and the exploitation of gold and precious stones, along with cattle ranching and other agricultural activities. To carry out such endeavors, increasing tracts of South American uninhabited land were progressively incorporated into Brazil by Portuguese settlers.

Sugar cane harvest and a sugar cane farm, the "engenho"

The discovery of gold brought migrants from the coastal plantations over to the interior of the country together with new immigrants from Portugal. The boom in gold and diamond mining, like that of sugar, was followed by the rise of another important source of wealth for which Brazil is well known today – coffee growing. Coffee plantations drew even more foreign immigrants to the country.

These economic activites helped shape the country’s territorial expansion up to the 19th century. Since then, borderlines were defined by diplomacy. Brazil did not fight any war for that purpose. All of its borders were negotiated peacefully with the neighbouring countries. In the maps below we can have an idea of the evolution on Brazil’s borders.

Today, Brazil is a vibrant democracy. The current President, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, took office in January, 2003. The inaugural ceremony, in Brasília, was quite a party, with people from all over the country, as you can see below.