Cabral Claims Brazil for Portugal

Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral, leading a fleet to India, makes landfall on the Brazilian coast (near present-day Porto Seguro, Bahia) and claims it for Portugal. Whether accidental or deliberate is debated by historians. The land falls within the Portuguese sphere established by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Cabral sends a dispatch ship back to Lisbon before continuing to India. Portugal initially shows little interest in Brazil beyond dyewood (pau-brasil) trade, but will establish permanent settlements by the 1530s.