History of Brazil facts

Rio de Janeiro. Rio was the capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960, both during the Portuguese colonial era and as an independent nation. With the population of 6.3 million, it is the second largest city in Brazil, after São Paulo (11M).

Portugal. On November 29,1807, Braganza royal family and its court of nearly 15,000 people escaped from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, shortly before Napoleonic forces invaded Lisbon. For thirteen years, Rio de Janeiro functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Pedro Álvares Cabral. On 15 February 1500, Cabral was appointed a commander of a fleet sailing for India. The fleet crossed the Equator on 9 April, and sailed westward as far as possible from the African continent in what was known as the Volta do mar (literally "turn of the sea") navigational technique. They landed in a land they took for an unknown island and named Ilha de Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross), which in fact was Brazil.