Brazil: Five Centuries of Change by Thomas E. Skidmore.
In the late 1400s, tiny Portugal with its mere one million inhabitants led the world in navigation, in part due the superior sailing skills its merchants developed on the rough seas of the Atlantic as opposed to the calmer waters of the Mediterranean. Though later bested in navigation by Holland (1.5 million inhabitants), England (3 million inhabitants), and Spain (7 million inhabitants), it claimed the prize of Brazil when one of its explorers sailed off course after setting off for Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. (Portugal had already turned down a request to finance the expedition of Christopher Columbus, who then took his request to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain): Continue reading
