Portuguese colonization of the Americas won a significant victory in the Second Battle of Guararapes in 1649. By 1654, the Netherlands had surrendered and returned control of all Brazilian land to the Portuguese. In 1751, the State of Maranhão was restructured into the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, with a new capital and government. In 1772, the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão was split into two new states, the State of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro and the State of Maranhão and Piauí. The new states would fare poorly and only last 3 years. In 1775, the three colonies of Portuguese America (the State of Brazil,
Islam in the Americas Islam in the Americas Islam is a minority religion in all of the countries and territories of the Americas. Suriname has the highest percentage of Muslims in its population for the region, with 13.5% or 66,307 individuals, according to its 2004 census. However, the United States, in which estimates vary due to a lack of a census question, is generally believed to have the largest population, with between 1.3 and 2.7 million. Some West African slaves taken to the Americas by colonists may likely have been Muslims, although they became forcibly converted to Christianity. Most Muslims in the former British