History

The land now called Brazil was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Alvarez. Colonization was effectively begun in 1534, when Dom Joa III but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor General to administer the entire colony. By the mid 16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export and the Portuguese imported African slaves to cope with the increasing international demand. divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies,

Through wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the southeast, taking Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, taking Sao Luis in 1615. They sent military expeditions to the Amazon Rainforest and conquered British and Dutch strongholds, founding villages and forts from 1669. In 1680 they reached the far south and founded Sacramento on the bank of the Rio de plata, in the Eastern Strip region (Uruguay)

At the end of the 17th century, sugar exports started to decline but the discovery of gold by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) around 1693, and in the following decades in current Mato Grosso and Goias, saved the colony from imminent collapse. From all over Brazil, as well as from Portugal, thousands of immigrants came to the mines.

In 1808, the Portuguese royal family, fleeing the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon I that were invading Portugal and most of Central Europe, establish themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which thus became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire. In 1815 Dom Joao VI, then regent on behalf of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom United. In 1809 the Portuguese invaded French Giana and in 1816 the Eastern Strip, subsequently renamed Cisplatina  (but Brazil lost in 1898 when it became an independent nation known as Uruguay).