The Portugueses discovered Brazil during a crisis period and important changes on Europe. Between the XII and XIV centuries, the feudalism was being replaced by a new kind of social organization.
The One Year Old War, between France and England, and the Black Death, that was being spread throughout the continent, disorganized the feudal society. The hungry stimulates rural rebellions out of control of the nobility. On the urban center, the transformation process is accelerated. The commerce blooms, and causes the beginning of a new social class: the mercantile bourgeois. That financed the great navigations from the XV and XVI centuries, which resulted on the discover of America and Brazil, on the conquest and colonization of Africa and Asia.
In April, 1500, the Portuguese navigator, Pedro Бlvares Cabral, arrived at the coast of the current Brazil and claimed formally all the region in the name of Portugal. Before arriving at firm earth, he claimed the region of Monte Pascoal. After, the territory was called Terra de Vera Cruz. One expedition conducted by Gaspar de Lemos, on which the Florentine navigator Amйrico Vespъcio participated, was sent to Terra de Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross) by the Portuguese government in 1501. During the exploration, they baptized many capes and bays, including one bay denominated Rio de Janeiro. The name Terra de Vera Cruz was changed to Santa Cruz (Holly Cross), and finally Brazil in allusion to Brazil wood, tree abundant on the region, which the expedition took in great quantities when returning to Portugal.
Nowadays, the commemoration of the Discovery Day of Brazil is on April 22nd.…
