What do people from Brazil speak?
Cristoforo Colombo arrived to the Caribbean islands in 1492. He was sailing under a commission of the very fresh Spanish crown, to find an alternative route to India, China and Japan. His prize was being governor of the lands, and a part of the That was the reason why the inhabitants of the territories were called "indios".
Short after Colombo's arrival, the Portuguese crown also made arrangements to explore the new territories. This provoked a conflict among Spain and Portugal regarding who was allowed to occupy and exploit the new lands. This escalated in diverse forms, until it was requested a decision to the Pope. It was Alexander VI who took a first decision on how to assign those territories to Spain and Portugal. As it wasn't satisfactory to Portugal, a series of later bulls, finished in the among both crowns. It divided non-christian world in two parts, using a meridian 370 leagues west from Cape Verde islands, in the Atlantic. Western of that line, all lands belonged to Spain. Eastern from that line, all lines belonged to Portugal.
This drove to a development where territories in American continent were divided among both empires. You can see in the following map how were occupied those territories:
In the Spanish colonies, Spanish was the official language. The same happened in the future Brazil with the Portuguese language. People were taught at scholl in the language of the colonial power. Indigenous languages were refused in the official and commerce use (as commerce was also regulated by the central powers). When the independence wars were finished, during 19th century, old colonial languages were what people had in common, after 400 years of colonial dominance.














