Originally uploaded by Nick Moles.
I vaguely recall learning something in High School. Specifically what, I don’t know. But I do remember learning about why Brazilians speak Portuguese. And today Wikipedia told me the exact reason!
Pope Alexander IV split the world along the meridian at 36W. To the Portuguese – Africa, Europe, Brazil, and whatever else they found. To the Spanish – America! The Portuguese were pissed they didn’t get more of America, so they ignored the line and kept moving west.
I saw this map in the Navigation museum of Lisbon, and said ‘Hey, why is there a Portuguese symbol in Quebec?’ That question remains unanswered.
Because of Portuguese expeditions to Greenland and North America before the treaty. If you take a closer look to the map under the coat of arms you see “Terra de Labrador” (Land of Labrador) and “Terra de Corte-Real” (Land of the Corte-Real) named after João Fernandes Labrador and the Corte-Real family. So the land was de facto Portuguese.