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nations. Portuguese trading ships were often commanded by men of wide- eyed courage and violence, many of whom were aristocrats . They seized ports and forts along the route to India and China. Cabral most certainly fit the mold of the rough-and-tumble sea captain and adventurer. On March 9, 1500, the navigator set sail from Lisbon to India taking a different route than his countryman, Vasco da Gama, had taken a few years before. Da Gama sailed around Africa, but told Cabral he should sail southwest to bypass the calm waters of the Gulf of Guinea, off the west African coast. Cabral did as he was told and on April 22, spotted land that he named the “Island of the True Cross,” an area in the northeast region of what would become Brazil. Cabral spent only ten days in the area, continuing to his orig- inal destination, India, on a journey that was wracked by bad luck, including the loss of four ships. Although Cabral had discovered a new land, the Portuguese ignored the region for thirty or so years. Portugal was more interested in India and other Asian lands. However, several other European nations eyed Brazil and threatened to take it by force. The Portuguese were also cashed-strapped, and needed the revenue a New World colony might bring. Consequently, the Portuguese paid more attention to the region Cabral had earlier discovered. Traders from Portugal

The landing of Cabral in 1500 in Porto Seguro in present-day Brazil, in a painting by Oscar Pereira da Silva (1865–1939).

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL