during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Games more than 10,000 athletes from 207 teams paraded into the Rio de Janeiro Stadium but many viewers were puzzled as the teams appeared to have come out in the wrong order in fact it was alphabetical order according to the native language of Brazil which is Portuguese Brazil is the only country in Latin America that uses Portuguese not Spanish as its primary language so why do Brazilians speak Portuguese well it all stems back to the late 15th century when Christopher Columbus and other voyagers were exploring the Atlantic soon after Columbus discovered the new world Spain rush to secure sovereignty over it before any other countries namely Portugal could do the same so in 1494 Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided their claims along the line of demarcation Spain was given exclusive rights to all lands west of the line while Portugal was free to conquer anything to the east this arrangement paved the way for Spain to colonize much of what is today Latin America which is why those countries speak Spanish meanwhile Portugal was only given a sliver of land off the Atlantic what is today the east coast of Brazil although present-day Brazil was officially discovered and claimed by Portugal in the year 1500 the Portuguese left it largely unoccupied until around 1530 the countries renewed interest in the region was due to Brazil would a unique tree found on the coast that can be processed into bright red dye this is as you might guess how Brazil got its name but interestingly Brazil would didn't turn out to be all that significant to Brazil's development instead the colonies cash crop was sugarcane in the late 16th century sugar was in high demand and Brazil's economy relied heavily on it so when other European powers began competing with Brazil's monopolies Brazilian plantation owners began migrating inland in search of more fertile land through these expeditions gold was discovered and in the late 1600s a gold rush ensued this led to further expansion and over the next century the borders of modern Brazil were drawn roughly a century later Brazil gained full independence of course the Portuguese didn't really discover Brazil when they first arrived millions of indigenous people were already living in the region the Portuguese enslaved the native population almost immediately however when tensions flared between native groups and colonizers the Portuguese began importing slaves from Africa over the course of roughly three centuries Brazil imported an estimated 4 million African slaves so many that at one point they outnumbered immigrants five to one as history unfolded what was once European Portuguese adopted bits and pieces of dialects from other languages first from natives and from African slaves and finally European immigrants today Brazilian and European Portuguese have slight differences in grammar and vocabulary and major differences in pronunciation nevertheless the languages remain very similar if you're a fan of history and exploration you should definitely check out discovery go you can watch all your favorite Discovery Channel shows anytime anywhere and you can download it for free at your app store click the link below to learn more throughout history the Amazon in Brazil has been a source of mystery to explorers who have attempted to navigate its Riedl terrain to learn why explorers refer to the Amazon as the green hell watch our video here in 1617 British adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh led his own trip to find El Dorado City he failed utterly returned home to England and was promptly beheaded for picking fights with Spanish during the trip in 1913 former US President Teddy Roosevelt led an expedition to map one of the Amazons tributaries he did succeed but not before one of his comrades had murdered another and he himself had almost died from an infected wound thank you for watching seeker daily please make sure to LIKE and subscribe to see new videos every day
