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PEDRO ALVAREZ CABRAL
Born
in 1467, Pedro Alvarez Cabral was Portuguese navigator and a
man surrounded by many questions.
In 1500, a friend of Vasco da Gama was sent out by
Manuel I, the head of a fleet heading to India, along with
an officer named Bartolomeu Dias.
Navigating the vessel, Cabral headed too far west,
reaching the coast of Brazil instead, which was claimed for
Portugal. Moving forward, other areas were reached to include
Madagascar, Mozambique, and the Indian coast.
However,
when they arrived in Calicut, trouble brewed over the
establishment of a trading post, as well as the attempt of
converting Muslims to Christianity.
Although Cabral and his crew tried to bombard the
city, he was forced to retreat in order to save all of his
precious East Indian cargo.
With all the ships heading back to Portugal full of
riches, Cabral’s method of diplomacy was met with a
tremendous amount of criticism.
Making
Cabral so fascinating is all the variations of this story.
For example, one story is that he discovered the land
of Brazil simply by being driven off course by ferocious
storms. Others
believe that the Spaniard Vicente Yanez Pinzon had already
reached Brazil before Cabral and that Portuguese navigators
had been there and wanting to obtain the land, were able to
secure a revision of the pope’s initial demarcation of the
world into the zones of exploration for both Spain and
Portuguese. However,
if you consider the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, this would
change the earlier line, placing Brazil in the Portuguese
zone, something still being debated today.
Even
so, Pedro Alvarez Cabral is known as being the principal
discoverer of Brazil. The
story most historians believe is that around 1526, King
Emanuel fitted an expedition to Calicut, consisting of 13
ships. Cabral
was appointed as commander in chief and taking a westerly
course around the Canaries, he discovered Brazil.
From there, it is believed that Cabral sailed on to
India but lost about 50% of his crew.
Even so, he landed at Calicut and after many
negotiations with the Indian princes, he was successful in
founding a factory there.
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