Alternative theory of the European discovery of Brazil

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The received view of historians is that the Portuguese explorer and navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral was the first European to discover Brazil, in April 22, 1500, blown westwards to the Brazilian coast while navigating to the Cape of Good Hope, en route to India.^[1]

One theory suggests^{[citation needed]} that Sancho Brandão discovered Brazil in 1341, but since Portugal could not claim Brazil as theirs, they requested an extension of the imaginary line which separated the world in two halves. The Pope did extend the line towards the west, and they called it the Tordesillas Treaty. With this treaty, the imaginary line would leave part of the land in Brazil to Portugal. Then in 1500, secretly knowing that Brazil was there, Portugal sent Pedro Álvares Cabral (at the time known as Pedro Alvares Gouvêia), on an expedition to the land discovered by Sancho Brandão in 1341.^{[citation needed]}

It is uncertain^{[citation needed]} if Pedro Álvares Cabral was blown westwards to the Brazilian coast while navigating to the Cape of Good Hope, or the whole expedition was a secret mission to find new lands in the Atlantic as a response to the Spanish claims that Amerigo Vespucci had visited the Brazilian north coast in July 1499 and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón in November 1499. According to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), Spain could not claim the lands.^{[citation needed]}