Which Portuguese explorer first reached Brazil in 1500?

Pedro Álvares Cabral was the Portuguese explorer who first reached Brazil in 1500. He was commanding a large Portuguese fleet sailing toward India when it crossed the South Atlantic and made landfall on the coast of South America.

Cabral’s fleet departed Lisbon on 9 March 1500. On 22 April, the expedition sighted land near what is now Porto Seguro in northeastern Brazil. Cabral named a prominent nearby landmark Monte Pascoal, or Easter Mount, and claimed the territory for Portugal. Under the Treaty of Tordesillas, the area lay within Portugal’s designated sphere of influence.

Cabral is commonly called the European discoverer of Brazil, though Spanish navigators Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Diego de Lepe probably visited parts of the Brazilian coast earlier in 1500. Their voyages were brief and did not lead to lasting Portuguese-style occupation, so Cabral receives the conventional credit. He continued to India, where his expedition helped expand Portugal’s commercial and political presence in the Indian Ocean. Cabral is often confused with Vasco da Gama, who had opened Portugal’s sea route to India several years earlier.