It is commonly known that Columbus and his fleet arrived in the state of Cear\u00e1 in Brazil before Pedro \u00c1lvares Cabral<\/em> is credited with the discovery in 1500. However, because of politics and the Treaty of Tordesillas<\/em>, Spain was never allowed to acknowledge their discovery. <\/p>\n Instead, the Spanish headed North and Brazil became the property of the Portuguese Crown. However, the Portuguese didn’t see much value in the arid, sandy, poor soiled Cear\u00e1, so they abandoned it to pirates and rogue traders. It’s said that this is when the blue eyes and blonde hair started. <\/p>\n About a 100-years after the first expedition, the Portuguese came back under Pero Coelho de Souza<\/em> and founded a small fort in the mouth of river Cear\u00e1. Life in Cear\u00e1 was harsh and many of the Portuguese starved or died of dehydration. Eventually de Souza’s wife, Thomazia, lead a Portuguese retreat out of Brazil and back to Lisbon.<\/p>\n Shortly after Cear\u00e1 was abandoned by de Souza, Martins Soares Moreno<\/em> arrived (1612) and rebuilt the fort at the mouth of River Cear\u00e1. Martins fell in love with the country, learned the language, married a Tabajara<\/a> woman, and stayed in Brazil for 45-years before returning to Portugal. The novel Iracema<\/em> tells of the love story between Martins and Iracema (his wife) and this part of Brazil and Cear\u00e1’s history.<\/p>\n Over the next century there is a typical amount of colonial politicking over who controlled Brazil. When the dust settled, Fortaleza became a town on April 13, 1726. In 1799, the Province of Cear\u00e1 split from the Province of Pernambuco and Fortaleza was chosen as the capital of Cear\u00e1.<\/p>\n
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