30 years after the discovery of Brazil by Cabral and his crew at
Monte Pascoal in Southern Bahia,
the portuguese seafarer Martim Afonso de Souza received from King D. Joao III
the order to expell the French from the Brazilian coast
and to take possession of the territories ceded to Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesilhas,
in 1494.
The favorable geographic and climatic conditions caused Martim Afonso to settle on
the coast of
São Paulo instead of
Salvador, in Bahia.
In 1532 Martim Afonso founded the village of São Vicente and shortly afterwards
the harbor of Santos. These were the first permanent Portuguese settlements in Brazil and
the beginning of colonization.
