Portuguese colonization of the Americas Bay. He and his nephew, Estácio de Sá, then founded the city of Rio de Janeiro in March 1567. In 1621, Philip II of Portugal divided the Governorate General of Brazil into two separate and autonomous colonies, the State of Maranhão and the State of Brazil. Regarding this period it is preferable to refer to "Portuguese America" rather than "Portuguese Brazil" or "Colonial Brazil", as the states were two separate colonies, each with their own governor general and government. Between 1630 and 1654, the Netherlands came to control part of Brazil's Northeast region, with their capital in Recife. The Portuguese
Portuguese-speaking African countries into the CPLP despite its limited historical and cultural commonalities with the other countries. Equatorial Guinea was traditionally not considered part of the PALOP and it was not a founding member of FORPALOP in June 2014, the recently created institution that includes the PALOP, a forum for political-diplomatic cooperation to deepen historical friendship ties and solidarity between these African states. It should however be noted that Portuguese is sparsely used throughout the country. It was admitted into the CPLP in 2014 and, subsequently, it became FORPALOP's sixth member. These five African countries are former colonies of the Portuguese Empire, which