> one of the most important bandeirantes was fernando de noronha, a portuguese converso with many contacts in the lisbon court. he convinced the crown to lease him the land and that he would give them in exchange a wood named pau brazil that provided a dye and other precious items he would find. the wood that he sent gave the land the name brazil > historians suggest that his leasing scheme was an effort to help portuguese jews by creating a place for them to live away from the growing threats of the catholic church and the inquisition. this was crucial because after they were expelled from spain in 1492 by the infamous alhambra decree, many jewish spaniards moved to nearby portugal where they were far more tolerant of jews > but this haven came to an end in 1497 when portugal expelled its jews. at this point, some jews moved to the netherlands, and others tried to move to the far-flung colonies, hoping to get as far as possible from the centralized government and its inquisition. thus, many new christians or conversos settled in brazil, where they would benefit from fernando de noronhas settlement   uco > mameluco is a portuguese word that denotes the first generation child of a european and an amerindian. it corresponds to the spanish word mestizo > in the 17th and 18th centuries, mameluco was also used to refer to organized bands of explorers from colonial brazil known as bandeirantes, who roamed the interior of south america departing from so paulo near the atlantic ocean to the interior of brazil and paraguay, invading guarani settlements in search of slaves and gold
Brazil