France Antarctique was the name of the failed French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567. The history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first Native Americans, over 8,000 years ago, into the present territory of that nation. ... The indigenous people of Brazil (povos indígenas in Portuguese) comprise a large number of distict ethnic groups who inhabited the countrys present territory prior its discovery by Europeans around 1500. ... The Age of Exploration The discovery of Brazil was preceded by a series of treaties between the kings of Spain and Portugal, the last of them is the Treaty of Tordesilhas, signed in 1494, creating the Tordesilhas Meridian, that divided the world between that two kingdoms. ... After its independence from the Portuguese on September 7, 1822, Brazil became a monarchy, the Brazilian Empire, which lasted until the establishment of the Republican government on November 15, 1889. ... The Constitutionalist Revolution From 1889 to 1930, the government was a constitutional democracy, with the presidency alternating between the dominant states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. ... Depression, coffee oligarchs, and the Revolution of 1930 The Great Depression The tenente rebellion (See History of Brazil (1889-1930)) did not mark the revolutionary breakthrough of Brazils bourgeois social reformers. ... Second Vargas presidency Vargas returned to politics in 1950, and through the free and secret ballot he was re-elected President of the Republic. ... Military rule The military held power from 1964 until March 1985 not by design but because of political struggles within the new regime. ... In politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a geographically-distant state (or city, in ancient times). ... The equator is an imaginary line drawn around a planet, halfway between the poles. ... Ipanema beach Cristo Redentor A NASA satellite image of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in Portuguese) is the name of both a state and a city in southeastern Brazil. ... Events Russia breaks 60 year old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland May 23 - Paul IV becomes Pope. ... Events The Duke of Alva arrives in the Netherlands with Spanish forces to suppress unrest there. ...

Brazil had been discovered in April 1500 by a fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral on behalf of the Portuguese crown, which arrived in present-day Porto Seguro, Bahia, but except for Salvador (first Brazilian capital city) the rest of the new territory still remained largely unexplored half a century later. Events Europes population was ~60 million. ... Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. ... See also Agbodrafo for the city in Togo formerly known as Porto Seguro. ... For the genus of wildflowers in the family Asteraceae, see Bahia (Botany) Bahia is a state in the north-east of Brazil. ... Salvador (in full, São Salvador da Baía de Todos os Santos, meaning Holy Savior of the Bay of All Saints) is a city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the NE Brazilian state of Bahia. ...

On 1 November 1555, a Huguenot French vice-admiral named Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510-1575), commanding a small fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and Huguenot colonists, took possession of the small island of Serigipe in the Guanabara Bay, in front of present-day Rio de Janeiro, where they built a fort named Fort Coligny (in honor of Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot admiral who supported the expedition in order to protect his co-religionists). To the still largely undeveloped mainland village, Villegaignon gave the name of Henryville, in honour of Henry II, the King of France, who also knew of and approved the expedition, and had provided the fleet for the trip. However, the French crown failed to make good use of Villegaignon's exploits to expand the reach of the French kingdom into the New World, as it was being done at the time with the conquests of Jacques Cartier in the present-day province of Québec, Canada. All of these settlements were in violation of the papal bull of 1493, which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal, who later defined the borders more exactly by the Treaty of Tordesillas. November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... Events Russia breaks 60 year old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland May 23 - Paul IV becomes Pope. ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. ... Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, born 1510 in Villegaignon, Seine et Marne, France was a naval officer (vice-admiral of Brittany) who attempted to help the Huguenots in France escape persecution. ... Entrance to Guanabara Bay In Portuguese, Baía da Guanabara is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. ... Ipanema beach Cristo Redentor A NASA satellite image of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in Portuguese) is the name of both a state and a city in southeastern Brazil. ... Fort Coligny was a fortress founded by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1555, in what constituted the so-called France Antarctique historical episode. ... Gaspard de Coligny (February 16, 1519 – August 24, 1572), Seigneur (Lord) de Châtillon, admiral of France and Protestant leader, came of a noble family of Burgundy. ... Henryville is a census-designated place located in Clark County, Indiana. ... Henry II (French: Henri II) (March 31, 1519 – July 10, 1559), a member of the Valois Dynasty, was King of France from July 31, 1547 until his death. ... The New World is one of the names used for the continents of North and South America and adjacent islands collectively, in use since the 16th century. ... Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier (Saint-Malo, France, December 31, 1491 – September 1, 1557) was a French explorer who is popularly thought of as one of the major discoverers of Canada, or more specifically, the interior region that would be part of the first area that could become that nation. ... This article describes the Canadian province. ... Papal bull of Pope Urban VIII, 1637, sealed with a leaden bulla. ... Events January 4 - Christopher Columbus leaves the New World. ... The Treaty of Tordesillas (signed at Tordesillas (Castile), June 7, 1494) divided the world outside of Europe in an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian 370 leagues (1770 km; 1100 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands (off the coast of Senegal in...

First mass celebrated at Fort Coligny. Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon is shown at right

Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his invasion, Villegaignon expanded the little colony by bringing more colonists in 1556, this time largely made of Swiss Calvinists from Geneva, in three ships under the command of his nephew, Bois le Comte. Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupynambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese. First mass celebrated at Fort Coligny in the island of Villegaignon. ... First mass celebrated at Fort Coligny in the island of Villegaignon. ... Events January 16 - Abdication of Emperor Charles V. His son, Philip II becomes King of Spain, while his brother Ferdinand becomes Holy Roman Emperor January 23 - The Shaanxi earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China. ... Calvinism has been known at times for its simple, unadorned churches and lifestyles, as depicted in this painting by Emmanuel de Witte where the 17th century congregation stands to hear a sermon. ... Geneva: the Mont Blanc bridge over the Rhône River and St Peters Cathedral Geneva (French: Genève) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland located where Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman, but the Genevois are fond of calling it Lac de Genève) empties into the...

The Island of Villegaignon under Portuguese attack (1560)

Finally, in 1560, Mem de Sá, the new Governor-General of Brazil, received from the Portuguese government the command to expel the French. With a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers, he attacked and destroyed Fort Coligny within three days, but was unable to drive off their inhabitants and defenders, because they escaped to the mainland with the help of the Indians, where they continued to live and to work. Admiral Villegaignon had already reverted to the Catholic faith and returned to France in 1558, in disgust with the continuing religious hate between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group (see French Wars of Religion). Download high resolution version (600x639, 194 KB)Island of Villegagnon - Fort Coligny under attack by Portuguese File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (600x639, 194 KB)Island of Villegagnon - Fort Coligny under attack by Portuguese File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Mem de Sá was a Governor-General of Brazil from 1557-1572. ... Events January 7 - French troops led by Francis, Duke of Guise take Calais, the last continental possession of England July 13 - Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul des Thermes at Gravelines. ... The French Wars of Religion were a series of conflicts fought between the Catholic League and the Huguenots from the middle of the sixteenth century to the Edict of Nantes in 1598. ...

Urged by two influential Jesuit priests who had come to Brazil with Mem de Sá, named José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega, and who had played a big role in pacifying the Tamoyos, Mem de Sá ordered his nephew, Estácio de Sá to assemble a new attack force. Estácio de Sá founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565 and fought the Frenchmen for two more years. Helped by a military reinforcement sent by his uncle, in 20 January 1567, he imposed final defeat on the French forces and definitely expelled them from Brazil, but unfortunately died a month later from wounds inflicted in the battle. Coligny's and Villegaignon's dream had lasted a mere 12 years. The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... José de Anchieta (1534-1597) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Brazil, South America, in the second half of the 16th century. ... Father Manoel da Nóbrega Manoel da Nóbrega (variant Manuel da Nóbrega) was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil. ... March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... Events March 1 - the city of Rio de Janeiro is founded April 27 - Cebu City is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. ... January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events The Duke of Alva arrives in the Netherlands with Spanish forces to suppress unrest there. ...

Largely in response to the two attempts of France to conquer territory in Brazil (the other one was named France Équinoxiale and took place in present-day São Luís, state of Maranhão), between 1612 and 1615, the Portuguese crown decided to step up the colonization of Brazil and upgrade its status. Equinoxial France was the contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of Equator, before tropical had fully gained its modern meaning: Equinoctial means in Latin of equal nights, i. ... São Luís is the capital of the state of Maranhão, Brazil. ... Maranhão is one of the states of Brazil in the north-eastern region. ... Events January 20 - Mathias becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ...

See more

• History of Brazil
• History of Portugal
• History of France
• French colonization of the Americas
• French colonial empires
• French Southern Territories for the French claimed sector of Antarctica

The history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first Native Americans, over 8,000 years ago, into the present territory of that nation. ... The history of Portugal is that of the rise of a nation to great world power, followed by a decline in fortune, then a resurgence. ... Gaul Main article: Gaul Settled mainly by the Gauls and other Celtic peoples (apart from a shrinking area of Basque population in the southwest and Ligurian population on the southern coast), the area of modern France comprised the bulk of the region of Gaul (Latin: Gallia) under the rule of... The French established colonies across the New World in the 17th century. ... Map of the first (light blue) and second (dark blue - plain and hachured) French colonial empires France has had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century until the 1960s. ... The French Southern Territories (long name: Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, French: Territoire des Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises or TAAF) are antarctic, volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Africa and about equidistant between Africa, Antarctica, and Australia. ...

References

Pioneers of France in the New World. By Francis Parkman; University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

External links

• French in Brazil: Saint-Alexis, France Antarctique (Rio de Janeiro) and Sao Luis de Maranhao (http://www.colonialvoyage.com/frenchbrazil.html)