An introduction to petroleum production research in Brazil

Brazil is made up of diverse population and a vast land. The Natives who were the original inhabitants of Brazil included the Carib and Arawak groups in the north, the Gas in eastern and southern Brazil, the Tupı́Guaranı́s in the East Coast of Brazil and in the Amazon River valley, and the Panos in the west. For the most part these groups of natives were essentially seminomadic, who subsisted by hunting and gathering and simple agriculture. Those groups in the more remote areas of the interior of Brazil maintained their traditional ways of life until the late 20th century, when their existence was threatened by the advancing frontier. The Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón is the first known European who visited the region now constituting Brazil. He landed near the site of present-day Recife on January 26, 1500. He subsequently drifted northward as far as the mouth of the Orinoco River. In April 1500, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese navigator, arrived in what today is known as the state of Bahia. He officially dedicated the land to god and the king of Portugal. Brazilians consider him the discoverer of Brazil. In 1530 the Portuguese King John III initiated a program of systematic colonization of Brazil. In 1555, the French founded a colony on the shores of what they