Brazil: Did you mean...?

The Estado da India (1505-1961) was the name the Portuguese gave to that part of their empire which stretched from India to East Asia. However, in its widest sense, the name includes all Portuguese colonies east of the Cape of...

Thomas Cavendish (1560-1592 CE) was an Elizabethan mariner and privateer who famously circumnavigated the globe in 1586-88 CE, only the third voyage to do so and the first to set sail with that specific intention. Returning rich...

William Dampier (1651-1715) was an English explorer, navigator, and naturalist, who was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He was also among the first Englishmen to step foot on Australian soil when he sailed...

A 17th-century painting by Albert Eckhout showing dancing Tapuias, an indigenous tribe of Brazil. (National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)

While there have been pirates and privateers of all nationalities, some Dutch mariners were particularly troublesome in the early modern period, targeting, in particular, the Spanish Main but also shipping in the eastern...

The Portuguese built an empire from 1420 onwards that was largely composed of trade centres dotted around the coasts of three continents. This colonial enterprise was driven by a search for African gold, Asian spices...

Fala do Trono, painting by Pedro Américo, Brazil, 1872. This painting depicts the opening of the General Assembly by the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II, on May 3, 1872. In addition to the Emperor, the painting features important...

The European colonization of the Americas was the process by which European settlers populated the regions of North, Central, South America, and the islands of the Caribbean. It is also recognized as the direct...

The transatlantic slave trade (also given as the Atlantic slave trade, circa 1492 to 1860) was the practice of enslaving the citizens of African states and transporting them across the Atlantic Ocean to...

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas (Tordesilhas) was an agreement between the monarchs of Spain and Portugal to divide the world between them into two spheres of influence. The imaginary dividing line ran down the centre of the...