Tomé de Sousa (1503–1579) was the first governor-general of the Portuguese colony of Brazil from 1549 until 1553. He was a nobleman and soldier born in Rates, Póvoa de Varzim. Sousa was born a noble and participated in military expeditions in Africa, fought the Moors and commanded the nau Conceição to Portuguese India, part of the armada of Fernão de Andrade.
Statue of Tomé de Sousa at Tomé de Sousa Square, Salvador, Brazil
Colonial Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal. During the 300 years of Brazilian colonial history, the main economic activities of the territory were based first on brazilwood extraction, which gave the territory its name; sugar production ; and finally on gold and diamond mining. Slaves, especially those brought from Africa, provided most of the workforce of the Brazilian export economy after a brief initial period of Indigenous slavery to cut brazilwood.
The brazilwood tree, which gives Brazil its name, has dark, valuable wood and provides red dye
Historical centre of Salvador in 2007 – the architecture of the city's historic centre is typically Portuguese.
17th-century Jesuit church in São Pedro da Aldeia, near Rio de Janeiro
View of a sugar-producing farm (engenho) in colonial Pernambuco by Dutch painter Frans Post (17th century)
