Pedro Alvares Cabral

Short Biography of the life of Pedro Alvares Cabral - Navigator and Explorer
The following biography information provides basic facts about the life Pedro Alvares Cabral:

• Nationality - Portuguese
• Lifespan - 1467 - 1520
• Family - Noble Portuguese family

• Education - Well educated befitting the status of his family
• Career - Navigator and Explorer
• Credited as : the first European to see Brazil in 1500

Facts, Timeline & History about the life of Pedro Alvares Cabral - Navigator and Explorer

The following are additional facts and a timeline about the life and history of Pedro Alvares Cabral.

• 1467: Pedro Alvares Cabral was born in Portugal
• Pedro Alvares Cabral came from a noble Portuguese family and his father attended the Portuguese court. He was the third son of Fernao Cabral, Governor of Beira and Belmonte and Isabel de Gouvea who was related to the royal family
• Pedro Alvares Cabral was well educated as befitted his status and would have been taught several languages, physics, geometry, mathematics, cartography and astronomy
• He was a member of the royal Portuguese court of King Manuel I of Portugal and the King John II
• 1500: 10 October King John II of Portugal appoints Pedro Alvares Cabral leader of an expedition to sail for the Indies following the success of the Portuguese explorers Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama and Bartolomeu Dias - but the expedition sails West for the New World before heading for the Indies around the Cape of Good Hope
• 1500: Dias accompanied Pedro Alvares Cabral on the voyage. Vasco da Gama himself gave the directions necessary for the course of the voyage

• 1500: March 9 - Pedro Alvares Cabral embarked from the River Tagus below Lisbon on his voyage of exploration  with 13 ships and 1500 men
• The voyage of exploration to the Indies lasted 11 months and the expedition route travelled as follows:
  • Cape Verde Islands
  • Then sailed in a definite south-westerly direction towards the New World
  • April 22 1500 a mountain was visible, to which the name of Monte Pascoal was given
  • April 23 Pedro Alvares Cabral landed on the coast of Brazil
  • April 25 the entire fleet sailed into Porto Seguro harbour
  • Pedro Alvares Cabral and his companions believed that the new land was an island.
  • Pedro Alvares Cabral named the land the Island of the True Cross (or Island of Vera Cruz) and claimed the land for Portugal
    • The new land contained brazilwood, the source of an excellent red dye and the Portuguese merchants called it Terra do Brasil - the name Brazil was eventually born
  • May 3 Pedro Alvares Cabral resumed the voyage of discovery back to the Indies via the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope
  • May 24 the fleet sailed through a terrible storm around the Cape of Good Hope in which four ships were lost including the ship of Bartholomeu Dias
  • July 16 the expedition reached Sofala
  • July 20 Pedro Alvares Cabral reached Mozambique
  • August 2 Pedro Alvares Cabral reached Melinde where he employed a pilot to take them to India
    • August 10 one of the ships commanded by Diogo Dias was separated by bad weather
    • Diogo Dias discovered the island later known as Madagascar
  • September 13 Pedro Alvares Cabral arrived in Calicut in India where he traded for spices
  • January 16 1501 Pedro Alvares Cabral started on the journey home to Portugal
• 1501 June 23: Pedro Alvares Cabral arrived in Lisbon with just four ships of the thirteen that had started the adventure
• Nothing more of Pedro Alvares Cabral is known. But it is believed that he died in 1520

Pedro Alvares Cabral and the Mystery of Brazil
The voyage of exploration of Pedro Alvares Cabral is a mystery. He was supposed to have been leading an expedition to the Indies. He had the charts of the great navigators of his age - his Portuguese fellow explorers Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gamaand Bartholomeu Dias. The explorer Bartholomeu Dias even accompanied Pedro Alvares Cabral on the voyage - Dias was the man who had discovered the route around the Cape of Good Hope on the Southern most tip of South Africa in 1487. Vasco da Gama himself gave the directions necessary for the course of the voyage. Had one of the other Portuguese explorers already discovered Brazil? Was the intention of  Pedro Alvares Cabral, the other famous navigators and the King of Portugal always intended that the fleet travelled to the New World to claim the land for Portugal? No one knows the real answer to Pedro Alvares Cabral and the Mystery of the discovery Brazil.

Interesting Facts, Timeline and Information about Pedro Alvares Cabral
Some interesting facts and biography information about the History, Life & Times of Pedro Alvares Cabral

Famous Explorers - Pedro Alvares Cabral - Navigator and Explorer
Additional details, timelines, facts, history and information about the famous European Explorers and events in the great Age of Exploration and Elizabethan Times can be accessed via the Elizabethan Era Sitemap.

Queen Elizabeth's Coat of Arms

Pedro Alvares Cabral

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By Linda Alchin