In 1520, the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, in command of a small Spanish fleet, used for the first time a sea route in the far south of the American continent…
Brazilwood, classified by botanists in the genus caesalpinia, was found in abundance in the easternmost part of the American continent (Varnhagen, 1877:1) by the Portuguese as soon as they arrived…
The place that was to be called Rio de Janeiro did not arouse the immediate interest of the Portuguese explorers after their arrival in the American lands. The same did not…
The early modern European period was marked by important changes in the way of thinking about space and representing it in cartography. If during the medieval period the maps were…
Contraband is defined for the first time in the Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) as “contravention of something that is forbidden by proclamation, published by proclamation, in the places or places…
With the Union of Crowns between Spain and Portugal in 1580, the Portuguese territory and its overseas possessions were inserted into the Castilian polisinodial system, a system of councils that…
Customs is an institution that has as its purpose the collection of taxes related to the entry and exit of goods and the supervision of foreign trade (Fernandes, 2021: 16),…
Since the Middle Ages, it was foreseen in feudal relations that vassals had the obligation to provide material and military aid to the lord, thus constituting the first approximation to…
The Paraíba region was conquered in 1584 thanks to the actions of Diego Flores de Valdés’ fleet, with his Armada of the Strait of Magellan. The conquest of the territory…
During the period of the Hispanic Monarchy, the installation and structuring of a hospital assistance in Brazil was still very incipient. In its early years (1580s), there are few reports…
The Portuguese Crown’s indigenist policy in Brazil was influenced by: the papal bulls, which guided and legitimized the Iberian overseas expansion; the slave trade in Africa; and the colonization and…
New Christians, descendants of Jews or Jews converted to Catholicism, played a prominent role in the colonization of the Americas, specifically in what would become Brazil. Despite the suffering generated…
The position of procurator of the Indians was officially established in Portuguese America with the alvará e regimento of 1596. However, at least since the 1560s, there are records indicating…
The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos, 1635, Fray Juan Bautista Maíno.
An emblematic painting, a must-have illustration for any work dealing with the period known as the “Iberian Union”, the union of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, this painting by…