Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer. He is regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. In 1500 Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal.
About Pedro Álvares Cabral in brief
Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer. He is regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. In 1500 Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. He was appointed to head an expedition to India in 1500, following Vasco da Gama’s newly-opened route around Africa. His fleet of 13 ships sailed far into the western Atlantic Ocean, perhaps intentionally, and made landfall on what he initially assumed to be a large island. Despite the loss of human lives and ships, Cabral’s voyage was deemed a success upon his return to Portugal. The extraordinary profits resulting from the sale of the spices bolstered the Portuguese Crown’s finances and helped lay the foundation of a Portuguese Empire that would stretch from the Americas to the Far East. Cabral was later passed over, possibly as a result of a quarrel with Manuel I, when a new fleet was assembled to establish a more robust presence in India. Having lost favor with the King, he retired to a private life of which few records survive. His accomplishments slipped mostly into obscurity for more than 300 years. Decades after Brazil’s independence from Portugal in the 19th century, his reputation began to be rehabilitated by Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, and he was knighted in 1868.
He died in 1520, and is buried in the city of Belmonte, in the municipality of Belo Horizonte, near Rio de Janiero, Brazil. His son, Joao de Cabral, was the founder of the University of Porto Alegre, which later became known as the Pontifical University of Pernambuco. The name Cabral is still used today to refer to the Portuguese-born son of Fernão Cabral and Isabel Gouveia. The coat of arms of his family was drawn with two purple goats on a field of silver. His elder brother was entitled to make use of the name of his father’s surname, but he only later began using it upon his elder brother’s death in 1503, supposedly upon his father’s death. He had no children of his own and was only entitled to use the surname of his older brother’S elder brother, who was also a nobleman. He never married and never had any children, but had a son and a daughter, both of whom died before he was able to leave Portugal. His only surviving child was a son-in-law, who died in childbirth in 1536. He left behind a son, who became the first Portuguese Prime Minister of the colony of Recoletos. He also had two daughters, one of whom survived to adulthood and died in 1864. He later became a member of the Portuguese Royal Family, and was buried in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he is buried with his wife.
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This page is based on the article Pedro Álvares Cabral published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
