(center-left, pointing) sights the Brazilian mainland for the first time on 22 April 1500. in Brazil among the
native Indians on 26 April 1500. Painting by
Victor Meirelles (1860). in Rio de Janeiro as depicted by Leandro Joaquim (1790). was one of the main water sources of the population of the city of São Vicente,
State of São Paulo, through the centuries.
Early settlement and colonization (1500–1700) Some of the earliest colonists for whom we have written records are
João Ramalho and
Diogo Álvares Correia. At the time the Portuguese Crown was focused on securing its highly lucrative
Portuguese Empire in Asia, and so did little to protect the newly discovered lands in the Americas from foreign interlopers. As a result, many pirates, mainly French, began dealing in
pau brasil with the Amerindians. This situation worried Portugal, which in the 1530s started to encourage the colonization of Brazil, principally for defensive reasons. The towns of
Cananéia (1531),
São Vicente (1532),
Porto Seguro (1534) and
Iguape (1538) date from that period. By the mid-16th century, Portuguese colonists were already settling in significant numbers, mainly along the coastal regions of Brazil. Numerous cities were established, including
Salvador (1549),
São Paulo (1554) and
Rio de Janeiro (1565). While most Portuguese (and predominantly male) settlers came willingly, some were forced exiles or
degredados. Such convicts were sentenced for a variety of crimes according to the
Ordenações do Reino, which included common theft, attempted murder and adultery. During the 17th century, most Portuguese settlers in Brazil, who throughout the entire colonial period tended to originate from Northern Portugal, moved to the northeastern part of the country to establish the first sugar plantations. Some of the new arrivals were
New Christians, that is, descendants of Portuguese Jews who had been induced to convert to Catholicism and remained in Portugal, yet were often targeted by the Inquisition (established in 1536) under the accusation of being
crypto-Jews.
Azoreans in Maranhão, Pará and Amapá There was concern in keeping the control of the territory, hence the policy in promoting the colonization with couples in the border lands. The occupation of the territory was seen as essential. In 1619, about 300 couples arrived in
Maranhão, the total number of people being around 1000 individuals, a significant number for that time.
Maranhão is the first region to receive
Azorean settlers in an organised way. Beyond the initial settling in 1619, led by Estácio da Silveira in 1619, others followed: in 1621 arrived 40 couples with Antonio Ferreira de Bettencourt and Jorge de Lemos Bettencourt, in 1625 other couples came with Francisco Coelho de Carvalho; in the ships "N. S. da Palma" and "São Rafael", 50 couples arrived; in the ships "N. S. da Penha de França" and "São Francisco Xavier" more settlers came. Throughout the 17th century, successive waves of Azorean couples were settled in
Maranhão. Azorean couples were also settled in
Pará, an example of this being the 50 couples (or around 219 individuals) who embarked on 29 March 1677, in the ship "Jesus, Maria e "José", in
Horta,
Faial. In 1676, 50 Azorean couples with 234 people of both sexes landed in
Belém, coming from Feiteira,
Faial. Immigrants to Brazil departed from Portugal via the ports of Lisbon (Leixões), Porto, and
Funchal on Madeira. Two British companies provided the bulk of transport of passengers in this period: the Companhia Marítima Mala Real Britânica and later the Companhia de Navegação do Pacifico. Many gold and diamond
mines were discovered in the region of
Minas Gerais, which then led to the arrival of not only Portuguese, but also of native-born Brazilians. Regarding the former, most were peasants from the
Minho region in Portugal. Official estimates – and most estimates made so far – place the number of Portuguese migrants to Colonial Brazil during the gold rush of the 18th century at 600,000. Though not usually studied, this represented one of the largest movements of European populations to their colonies to the Americas during the colonial times. According to historian
Leslie Bethell, "In 1700 Portugal had a population of about two million people." During the 18th century hundreds of thousands left for the
Portuguese Colony of Brazil, despite efforts by the crown to place severe restrictions on emigration. ,
Minas Gerais an 18th-century colonial city and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Between 1748 and 1756, 7,817 settlers from the
Azores Islands arrived in
Santa Catarina, located in the
Southern Region of Brazil. Several hundred couples of Azoreans also settled in
Rio Grande do Sul. The majority of those colonists, composed of small farmers and fishermen, settled along the litoral of those two states and founded the cities of
Florianópolis and
Porto Alegre. Unlike previous trends, in the south entire Portuguese families came to seek a better life for themselves, not just men. During this period, the number of Portuguese women in Brazil increased, which resulted in a larger
white population. This was especially true in
Southern Brazil. A significant immigration of very rich Portuguese to Brazil occurred in 1808, when Queen
Maria I of Portugal and her son and regent, the future
João VI of Portugal, fleeing from
Napoleon's invading armies, relocated to the Portuguese Colony of Brazil with 15,000 members of the royal family, nobles and government, and established themselves in Rio de Janeiro. After the Portuguese military had successfully repelled Napoleon's invasion, King João VI returned to Europe on 26 April 1821, leaving his elder son Prince
Pedro de Alcântara as regent to rule Brazil. The Portuguese government attempted to turn Brazil into a colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808. The Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822. On 12 October 1822, Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil and crowned
Dom Pedro I on 1 December 1822. Thousands of ordinary
Portuguese settlers left for Brazil after independence.
Portuguese immigration to Brazil (1822–1960) , nicknamed "the Brazilian bombshell", was born in Portugal and emigrated with her family to Brazil in 1910, when she was ten months old. A few years after independence from Portugal in 1822, Portuguese people would start arriving in Brazil as immigrants, and the Portuguese population in Brazil actually increased. Most of them were peasants from the rural areas of Portugal. The majority settled in urban centers, mainly in
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro, working mainly as small traders, shopkeepers, porters, cobblers, and drivers. A smaller number became coal miners, dairy workers, and small-scale farmers outside of urban areas. Portuguese immigrants also provided labor for the dredging of the
Tietê River.. This wave included Portuguese immigrants, including political refugees, who had previously been members of the Portuguese
Estado Novo regime's elite, with a reputed background in politics, academics, business, and colonial administration in the days of the old regime. Portuguese settlers from the former colony
Macau and the Eurasians called
Macanese also moved to Brazil during the same period. The wave of Portuguese immigrants in the 1970 settled primarily in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and the capitals of the states of northeast Brazil. After Portugal's recovery from the effects of Salazarist dictatorship of the Estado Novo, the
Portuguese Colonial War, and the turmoil of the
Carnation Revolution, in the 1980s and 1990s with the growth of the
Portuguese economy and a deeper
European integration, very few Portuguese
immigrants went to Brazil. From the 1980s to the 2000s, Portuguese emigrants mainly went to other states within the European Union, followed by Canada, the US, Venezuela and South Africa.
The Portuguese sovereign debt and Eurozone crisis (2009–present) In the first six months of 2011, with
the economic crisis in Portugal and several other European Union member states,
including Spain, Italy, Ireland and Greece, a record number of 328,826 Portuguese citizens made their situation regular in Brazil. One of the reasons which explained this rise in Portuguese immigration to Brazil was the economic crisis in Portugal, where unemployment rate rose to over 12.5%. In that period, the Portuguese lead the numbers of foreigners making their situation regular in Brazil. This wave differentiates from the two previous waves by the higher education level of the new Portuguese emigrants, which represents an effective brain drain since large numbers of highly qualified and experienced professionals and businessmen left their country. ==Portuguese immigration in numbers==