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INTRODUCTION
BASIC FACTS
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portugese
explorer who is credited with the
discovery and naming of Brazil. Even
today, Cabralia bay in Brazil is named
after this daring explorer.
Birth Date: either 1467-1468, Belmonte,
Portugal
Death Date: 1520, Santarém, Portugal
Lifespan: 53 years
CABRAL'S
VOYAGE
This is the voyage in which Cabral sailed
the seas and discovered Brazil.
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FACT
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EARLY LIFE
- Despite much obscurity regarding
Cabral's early life, it is known that he
was the second son and that he came from
a family of nobles.
- Due to his relation to the monarchy,
Cabral was educated in the royal court.
- In 1497, King Manuel I of Portugal
recruited Cabral to the King's Council.
- In 1497, the Portugese explorer Vasco
da Gama sailed around Africa for the
first time and arrived in Calicut,
India.
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EVENT
01
DEPARTURE
- In 1500, the new Portugese goal was to
develop better trading outposts and
a more efficient trading relationship in
Asia, especially for valuable and
luxurious spices. If the Portugese could
establish friendlier trading with Asia,
then perhaps they could be relieved of
the spice trade monopoly by the Italian,
Turkish, and Arab merchants.
- The second goal was to spread
Catholicism by any means possible.
- On March 9th, 1500, a fleet of 1200
men set sail from a port in Lisbon,
Portugal under Cabral's command.
- Cabral's fleet was to achieve these
goals and also sail much farther west in
search of new lands to discover before
going around Africa. Instead of sailing
along the West African coast, Cabral's
men were to veer much farther southwest
and then travel rather horizontally
around Africa.
- It is not entirely known why King
Manuel chose Cabral to lead the mission,
as evidence suggests he had only sailed
very little before that point. Many
believe that he was chosen due to his
earlier services to the Portugese
monarchy.
- The expedition began unfortunately,
with one of Cabral's ships sinking,
although little is known about this.
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02
DISCOVERING BRAZIL
- Had Cabral sailed only as far west as
he was asked to, he would never have
landed in Brazil; his cherished discovery
was actually an accident, as Cabral
sailed too far west. It was this that
brought him to the new territory.
- On April 22nd, 1500, Cabral set foot on
the Brazilian mainland for the first
time, thereby discovering it.
- Cabral's discovery took place on the
coast of present-day Bahia, a Brazillian
state now home to the city of Salvador,
which has a population of about 3 million
people and is the fourth largest city in
all of Brazil.
- As soon as they arrived, Cabral and his
men built and planted a cross in the new
territory in order to claim it.
- Although Cabral thought he had
discovered an island, Portugal and Cabral
himself later realized that he had
discovered only a small part of a new
continent.
- Upon arrival, Cabral also sent one of
his ships back to Lisbon to alert the
King.
- The rest of the crew stayed in presentday Bahia for about ten days before they
set sail for India.
- During those ten days, interactions
with natives consisted of a relatively
one-sided spread of Catholicism, with
religion consistently dominating
conversations and natives being "given"
crosses to wear around their necks.
- Cabral's arrival in Bahia marked the
beginning of Portugese colonization and
exploitation of resources from Brazil.
The effects of Cabral's voyage are still
evident in the country today, as
Portugese is still the most spoken
language in Brazil, and because Brazil is
the largest Portugese speaking nation in
the world.
- The Treaty of Tordesillas allowed the
Portugese to land in Brazil and begin
colonizing it.
- Unfortunately, Cabral's discovery of
Brazil also meant that multiple European
diseases such as smallpox, measles, and
the flu found their way into Brazil
through infected European settlers aboard
ships.
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02
RESOURCES OBTAINED FROM BRAZIL
- Although Cabral's voyage alone did not
offer any lucrative benefits, it opened
up a new territory for Portugese
exploitation in the years to come.
Because colonization of Brazil steadily
increased after Cabral's voyage,
navigation and geographical knowledge of
the area became more known for a land
that was becoming less and less new. This
allowed the Portugese to profit
considerably off of Brazil's unique
resources.
- Brazil's most lucrative resource proved
to be the Brazilwood tree, a legume that
is somewhat related to the acacias and
mesquites.
- Inside the Brazilwood tree was a bright
red powdery pigment, called a dye, whose
striking color and premium properties
were used in luxury textiles. Brazilwood
lumber was also used to make furniture
and construct exploratory ships.
- Brazilwood is the reason that Brazil is
the only country in the world to be named
after a tree. When Portugal colonized
Brazil, they called Brazilwood "paobrasil" and were so occupied exploiting
Brazilwood that they named the area,
which would later become a country,
Brazil.
- Portugal also used Brazil as a source
of sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee and
other crops that were less practical to
farm in Europe.
- The Portugese also imported West
African slaves to work in the fields and
mines in order to maximize their resource
exploitation.
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03
THE SPANISH AND PORTUGESE COLONIZATION TREATIES
- The Spanish and Portugese, being the
frontrunners of the age of exploration,
quickly realized that constant war over
various territories would occur between
them if they did not come to a consensus.
The Pope realized this, and on two
seperate ocassions, first proposed the
Treaty of Tordesillas, which was
established on June 7th, 1494 and then
the Treaty of Zaragoza, which was
established on April 5th, 1529. Both of
these treaties were named after the
places where they were signed.
- The two treaties regulated the
locations of the colonies of only the two
most dominant exploratory powers, the
Spanish and Portugese colonies, and were
therefore ignored by the English, the
French, and the Dutch, which were the
second biggest exploratory nations at the
time.
- The initial proposal of the Treaty of
Tordesillas, which ruled that everything
to the right of the decided longitude
could be colonized by the Portugese and
that everything to the left could be
colonized by the Spanish, gave Portugal
only a very small sliver of South
America, so little, the Portugese
complained, that they would not have
enough space to dock their ships. It was
therefore moved to allow the Portugese to
colonize a more expansive, but still very
limited portion of Brazil.
- The Treaty of Zaragoza was a later
treaty, establishing that everything to
the left of a longitude that ran near the
center of the island of New Guinea, the
eastern side being home to present-day
Papua New Guinea, could be colonized by
the Portugese and that everything to the
right could be colonized by the Spanish.
This treaty was initiated primarily in
order to decide which of the two nations
would have the right to colonize the
Philippines. Because Cabral never
traveled to the areas the treaty
delegates and because the treaty was
initiated nine years after Cabral's
death, it is of no specific relevance to
Cabral's voyage; however, it was of great
significance to later achievements by the
Portugese.
- Although the Treaty of Tordesillas only
offered a very limited portion of South
America to the Portugese, in the years
after Cabral's discovery, initially
unbeknownst to the Spanish, the Portugese
colonized areas far beyond the line
dedicated by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
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03
AN UNFORTUNATE VOYAGE TO INDIA
- Having left Brazil, Cabral now focused
on developing better trading
relationships and outposts in Asia and
continuing to spread Catholicism. He was
also looking to load his ships with
exotic spices without having to go
through the Italian, Turkish, and Arab
spice monopoly. His primary destination
was Calicut, India, located in presentday Kozhikode.
- While rounding the southern tip of
Africa, called the Cape of Good Hope,
Cabral's fleet encountered severe storms.
The storms sunk four more of Cabral's
ships.
- Shortly after rounding the cape, Cabral
stopped briefly at ports located in
Sofala, Mozambique, and Kilwa, none of
which yielded very profitable trades or
opportunities to spread Caththolicism.
- For these reasons, Cabral soon left the
East African coast and traveled onwards
towards India, eventually arriving in
Calicut on September 13, 1500.
- During Cabral's first few days in
Calicut, he established a relationship
with the local leader and recieved
approval to upgrade an old building into
a warehouse for trading purposes. For the
next few days, trading was productive for
Cabral's fleet.
- On September 16th or 17th, though, just
three or four days after Cabral's
arrival, his factory was attacked by a
total of approximately 300 Arab Muslims
and Hindu Indians, convinced by Arab
merchants that the Portugese trading
would sabotage their monopoly. The
violent strike organized by the Arab
merchants killed over 50 Portugese men.
- After recieving no apology from the
local leader within 24 hours of the
ambush, Cabral retaliated by raiding the
city of loot and capturing ten anchored
Arab merchant ships. He loaded the loot
into his ships and then set fire to all
the personal posessions aboard the enemy
ships for which he had no use of. He then
executed the total of about 600 crew
members, including the merchants
themselves.
- After having been accepted with great
hostility in Calicut, the Portugese
fleet set sail for the Kingdom of Cochin,
also known as Kochi.
- The Portugese and the Arabs in Calicut
were highly suspicious of each other long
after the events that took place under
Cabral's command, and future conflict was
immminent.
- Although Cabral's vengence was
objectively outlandish, many speculate
that it was, in fact, a very intelligent
European ploy.
- Cabral's decision to ruthlessly execute
many of the Arabs evoked great fear from
the Asians. This fear allowed the
Portugese to rule the Far East despite
being greatly outnumbered, because few as
they were, they appeared to be
psychologically far more powerful than
everyone else around them. It was this
psychology that the Portugese used in
order to force other natives into
submission.
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04
A SLIGHTLY LESS UNFORTUNATE CLOSING
- On December 24th, 1500, Cabral's fleet
arrived in the Kingdom of Cochin,
thereupon he visited one of the citystates leaders and established a positive
relationship with them.
- Because the Kingdom of Cochin was
trying to escape the rule of Calicut at
the time, it was easy for Cabral to form
an alliance with the leader of the citystate simply by offering Portugese
support in Cochin's quest for
independence.
- Such offers slowly forced the
"supported" city-states into becoming
more and more heavily reliant on
Portugese control, thereby allowing the
Portugese to colonize city-states they
had promised to protect easily, as
leadership changes would emerge naturally
from the city-states growing struggles
with their previous conquerors.
- Cabral also attained permision to build
a factory from the leader of Cochin;
however, Cabral encountered much less
adversity in Cochin.
- Once Cabral had at last established a
working trade factory in Cochin,
concentrating primarily on spices, more
lucrative trades could begin occuring.
- As the weeks past, Cabral was slowly
able to load more and more goods onto his
ships, and his working factory gave him
the freedom to seek out even more
profitable trading cities. Cabral
traveled to multiple other Indian citystates in the months to come, and
continued trading into the year 1501.
Cabral traveled to city-states further
inland, and he also sailed to other
coastal city-states, such as Kannur,
which was north of Calicut.
- On January 16th, 1501, with his ships
sufficiently loaded, Cabral set sail to
return to Portugal.
- On the way to Lisbon, Cabral's fleet
stopped at the Island of Mozambique, a
very small island off the coast of
Mozambique, in order to acquire
supplies and to prepare the ships for the
dangerous waters near the Cape of Good
Hope, waters which were constantly
riveting with storms.
- On May 22nd, 1501, Cabral's fleet
sailed around the Cape of Good Hope,
braving the rough waters and the storms
that had previously sunk his ships.
- Cabral returned to Lisbon, Portugal on
July 21st, 1501, with two empty ships,
five fully loaded ships, and six lost
ships.
- Even though Cabral lost about half of
his fleet during the expedition, King
Manuel I was still satisfied with the
results of Cabral's voyage.
- Despite having lost six ships, many
tons of equipment, and several proficient
navigators, the profit yielded by the
spices Cabral brought greatly exceeded
the total cost of covering the lost
ships, men, and equipment, thereby still
giving rise to a sizeable profit for the
Portugese crown, all things accounted
for.
- Whereupon Cabral's fleet landed in
Portugal, King Manuel I began planning a
second mission to Calicut in order to
take vengence on the Arabs for the
Portugese losses. Cabral was initially
chosen as the commander of this fleet,
and spent eight months preparing for
travel; however, he was replaced by Vasco
da Gama with only very little time before
the departure of the mission, which was
on February 12th, 1502.
- The reason for the change in
commandment is unclear; some believe that
da Gama was chosen due to the great loss
of lives, equipment, and provisions on
Cabral's voyage, others believe that it
was because Cabral and King Manuel I
disagreed on certain matters.
- Between 1501 and 1503, Cabral left the
royal court, retired, and got married in
1503.
- Little is known about Cabral's life
after 1503. Cabral died in 1520
in Santarém, Portugal of unknown causes.
- Cabral's grave is buried in the São
João Evangelista chapel of the Convento
da Graça in Santarém, Portugal, about 70
kilometers away from Lisbon.
- Although Cabral only ever commanded one
voyage, he is remembered today both for
his discovery of Brazil, his profitable
voyage, and his excellent execution of
the wishes of the Portugese crown.
Cabral's voyage was also the first ever
voyage to have landed in four continents;
Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.
- Furthermore, the fleet that departed in
1502 that Cabral was initially chosen to
lead, called the "Revenge Fleet", was
unsuccessfull under da Gama's command.
Perhaps if Cabral had lead the fleet, the
expedition would have been more
successfull.
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MAP
MAP
This is a map of Cabral's voyage. Notice how
it reaches four continents.
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