Pedro Álvares Cabral
Sailor, Deceased Person
1467 – 1520
Who was Pedro Álvares Cabral?
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are unclear, it is known that he came from a minor noble family and received a good education. He was appointed to head an expedition to India in 1500, following Vasco da Gama's newly opened route around Africa. The object of the undertaking was to return with valuable spices and to establish trade relations in India—bypassing the monopoly on the spice trade then in the hands of Arab, Turkish and Italian merchants.
His fleet of 13 ships sailed far into the western Atlantic Ocean, perhaps intentionally, where he made landfall on what he initially assumed to be a large island. As the new land was within the Portuguese sphere according to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Cabral claimed it for the Portuguese Crown. He explored the coast, realizing that the large land mass was probably a continent, and dispatched a ship to notify King Manuel I of the new territory. The continent was South America, and the land he had claimed for Portugal later came to be known as Brazil. The fleet reprovisioned and then turned eastward to resume the journey to India.
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- Born
- 1467
Belmonte Municipality - Also known as
- Pedro Alvares Cabral
- Parents
- Spouses
- Isabel de Castro
(1503 - )
- Isabel de Castro
- Children
- Religion
- Catholicism
- Ethnicity
- Portuguese people
- Nationality
- Portugal
- Profession
- Died
- 1520
Santarém
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Pedro Álvares Cabral." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/pedro_alvares_cabral>.
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