As thousands of Italian immigrants were arriving in São Paulo to work in the coffee trade (mostly as a labor class), nobody imagined that they would change the face of the city to such a degree. But that’s not all; they also changed the face of the typical Paulista. It’s now a challenge to find a native Paulista who is not...
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When aboriginal slaves were not enough to maintain the growing sugar business, African slaves were brought into the colony by the tens of thousands. The Portuguese crown divided the administration of the country into two parts: the sugar business and everything else. Those responsible for everything else were given permission to...
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Captain Duarte Coelho was not thrilled when he finally came to settle onto his Brazilian lands, given to him by King João III to govern and populate for the Portuguese crown. Fourteen other Portuguese captains were given lands in Brazil. Coelho’s particular slice–the part that would become the state of Pernambuco–was...
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Everything changed with the discovery and cultivation sugar cane, Brazil’s most important cash crop to this day. The Portuguese invested in the colonization of this wild land and created fifteen separate territories which were given to fifteen sea captains to govern and populate. They had varying degrees of success. João de...
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Not only were the Portuguese well positioned geographically to reach out across the great Atlantic, but they also posessed one of the greatest schools of marine navigation in Europe at the time, the Sagres school. Replete with naval maps and navigational devices, the school trained many of Europe’s finest navigators in the 15th...
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When gold starting pouring out of Minas Gerais in the early 1700s, the small and innocuous town of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro turned into the most important port town on the Brazilian coast, even surpassing Salvador in importance. It wasn’t long before the Portuguese Crown took the capital of the colony away from Salvador...
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When you look back on it, it seems almost inevitable that something important was to come from Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s. Brazil was enjoying a time of prosperity and cultural growth under the presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek. Carmen Miranda had opened the doors to Hollywood and gotten the world to take notice of the big South...
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One of the first cities to be developed in Brazil, Salvador’s official founding is 1549, when Captain Tomé de Souza came to govern the land given to him by King João III of Portugal. A dubious honor, but certainly better than suffering the inquisition back home. Others had failed at keeping the colony free of French pirates and...
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Take a visual vacation to Brazil with this photo e-book. See just how blue the water is along the extensive coastline of the Northeast Region. Get a glimpse of the people and the culture that is Brazil. This promotional e-book is free and we encourage you to copy and distribute it as much as you can. 
Heading to Rio de Janeiro? Take this handy 3-day itinerary with you to get the most out of your journey in the least amount of time. Download and take it with you on your laptop or on CD, or use the printable pages in your notebook or day planner. Available for FREE from this site.
