Who did the Portuguese fight for control of Brazil?

Question

Who did the Portuguese fight for control of Brazil?

A. the Dutch
B. the Spanish
C. both the French and the Dutch
D. the French

Answer 1

"As time passed, the Portuguese realised that some European countries, specially France, were also sending excursions to the land to extract brazilwood. Worried about the foreign incursions and hoping to find mineral riches, the Portuguese crown decided to send large missions to take possession of the land and combat the French. In 1530, an expedition led by Martim Afonso de Sousa arrived to patrol the entire coast, ban the French, and to create the first colonial villages, like São Vicente, at the coast."

"With the failure of most captaincies and the menacing presence of French ships in the Brazilian coast, the government of King John III decided to turn the colonisation of Brazil back into a royal enterprise."

"The third Governor General of Brazil was Mem de Sá (1557-1573), an efficient administrator that managed to defeat the aborigines and, with the help of the Jesuits, expel the French Calvinists that had established a colony in Rio de Janeiro (the France Antarctique). His nephew, Estácio de Sá, founded the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1565."

"French incursions"

"The potential riches of tropical Brazil led the French, who did not recognise the Tordesillas Treaty, to attempt to colonise parts of the Portuguese colony. In 1555, the Huguenot Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon founded a settlement within Guanabara Bay, in an island in front of today's Rio de Janeiro. The colony, named France Antarctique, led to conflict with Governor General Mem de Sá, who waged war against the colony in 1560. Estácio de Sá, nephew of the Governor, founded Rio de Janeiro in 1565 and managed to expel the last French settlers in 1567. Jesuit priests Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta were instrumental in the Portuguese victory by pacifying the natives who supported the French".

"Another French colony, the France Équinoxiale, was founded in 1612 in present-day São Luís, in the North of Brazil. In 1614 the French were again expelled from São Luís by the Portuguese."

"Colonial Brazil : Colonisation" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Brazil#Colonisation

Answer 2

The Portugese and the Spanish were in the Americas very early, but the Portugese never had to fight for Brazil.

Since Spain and Portugal are both Catholic countries, the abided by a decree from the Pope.

Portugal would have full control over the eastern colonies and Spain would have full control over the wetern ones.

Since it was a real long time ago, people really did not know the true size of the world yet. Thus, even though the Spanish had contol of all of America, Portugal got Brazil since it was in the "East".

Answer 3

C. both the French and the Dutch.
The French tryed to invade Brazil in the XVIth century and the Dutch controlled the northeast of Brazil from 1630 to 1654. The French invasion is already explainded by the answer above. To get to know a bit (just a bit) about the Dutch invasion you can see the link above
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Brazil