Portuguese colonization of the Americas on 22 April, Cabral landed on the coast, in Porto Seguro. Believing the land to be an island, he named it Ilha de Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross). The previous expedition of Vasco da Gama to India already recorded several signs of land near its western open Atlantic Ocean route, in 1497. It has also been suggested that Duarte Pacheco Pereira may have discovered the coasts of Brazil in 1498, possible its northeast, but the exact area of the expedition and the explored regions remain unclear. On the other hand, some historians have suggested that the Portuguese may
Immigration to Portugal been able to prove that they are descended from Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497, have acquired Portuguese citizenship. Immigration to Portugal As of 2007 Portugal had 10,617,575 inhabitants of whom 332,137, or 3.13%, were legal immigrants (51,7% female, 48,3% male). Brazilians, Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and Russians, Asians as well as Africans are the immigrants in the country. Portugal, long a country of emigration, has now become a country of net immigration, and not just from the last Portuguese overseas territories in India (until 1961), Africa (until 1975), and Far East Asia (until 1999). Since the 1990s, along with a