Pedro Alvares Cabral was a Portuguese explorer and navigator who lived between the 15th and 16th centuries. He is generally given credit for being the first person from Europe to have ‘discovered’ the area which is today the country of Brazil. Cabral’s discovery of this new land had a huge impact on the colonial history of Portugal, as the coffers of the empire were filled with its resources. But the amateur navigator had no intention of reaching this particular far off land.
His Family Roots
Pedro Alvares Cabral was born in 1467/1468 in Belmonte, Portugal, and was the second son of Fernao Cabral and Isabel de Gouveia. The Cabrals were a noble family whose members had been in the service of the Portuguese throne for many generations. Thanks to his family’s status, Cabral was educated at the royal court, and in 1497, was appointed as a member of King Manuel I’s council.
