Candomblé originated among enslaved Africans who were transplanted to Brazil during the Atlantic slave trade. The first African slaves to arrive in Brazil did so in the 1530s. Brazil received a larger number of enslaved Africans than any other part of the Americas; Bahia had the highest concentration of these enslaved Africans in Brazil. The precise number of Africans brought to Brazil is not known, although conservative estimates usually argue that the number was around four million. Between 1775 and 1850, the majority of the enslaved people brought to Brazil came from the Gulf of Benin, largely in what is now Benin and Nigeria. Many of those brought from this area were speakers of Yoruba languages. On being brought to Brazil, these slaves were divided into "nations", primarily on their port of embarkation rather than their original etho-cultural identities. This process meant that Africans of different cultural backgrounds, regions, and religions were thrown together under a unifying term such as "Nagô", the latter used for those exported from the Bight of Benin. This meant that the deities venerated in different regions in Africa were brought together as part of the same pantheon. Whereas in Africa, people had generally venerated deities associated with their specific region, these commitments were broken up by the process of enslavement and transportation.