Gonçalo Coelho

Gonçalo Coelho (* probably 1451 in Florence , † 1512 in Seville ) was an explorer from Portugal . He played a prominent role in the discovery and exploration of the mainland of what is now the state of Brazil .

At the beginning of the 16th century he took part in several expeditions to Brazil , which started from Lisbon .

One of them took place with the participation of Amerigo Vespucci from Florence, who was to become eponymous for the whole continent, namely the one in 1501/02, on behalf of King Emanuel I of Portugal, which started on May 14 with three caravels. Coelho led this voyage, which followed the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral , which started on March 9, 1500 . On New Years Day 1502, the fleet landed on Rio de Janeiro south of Fortaleza . Possibly the fleet reached the Río de la Plata in the south . The aim was to occupy a small part of what is now Brazil, which, according to a decision by the Pope, could be occupied by Portuguese.

In 1503 another Gonçalo Coelho expedition discovered that the French were planning to land in Brazil. In July 1503, Binot Paulmier de Gonneville set out on an expedition. In 1530 a new expedition was sent to Brazil by Martim Alfonso de Souza , with the aim of fighting the French, who were not finally expelled from Brazil until 1625.

Gonçalo Coelho is the father of Duarte Coelho Pereira (* around 1485, † 1554), who founded what is now the Brazilian city of Olinda in 1537 .

literature

• William Brooks Greenlee: The voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India , ISBN 81-206-1040-7
• Leslie Bethell: The Cambridge History of Latin America Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-521-23223-6
• Daniel Parish Kidder, James Cooley Fletcher: Brazil and the Brazilians Childs & Peterson, 1857

Web links

Biography of Gonçalo Coelho (Portuguese) of the Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões