Cabral was leading a large fleet of 13 ships and more than 1,000 men following Vasco da Gama's way to India, around Africa. Cabral was able to safely enter and leave Brazil in ten days, despite having no means of communication with the indigenous people there, due to the experience Portuguese explorers, such as Gama, had been amassing over the past few decades in interacting with foreign peoples.

The Portuguese colonization, around 80 years earlier,