Pedro Teixeira

Pedro Teixeira

Pedro Teixeira (b.1570-1585 - d.4 July 1641), occasionally referred to as the Conqueror of the Amazon, was a Portuguese conquistador and military officer, who became, in 1637, the first European to travel up and down the entire length of the Amazon River, he also headed the government of the captaincy of Pará in two different periods, one in 1620-1621 and another in 1640–1641. Teixeira was born either in 1570 or 1585 at the Vila of Cantanhede, born to a noble family, he was a Knight of the Order of Christ and a Portuguese nobleman in service of the royal family, he married Ana Cunha in Praia, Azores, daughter of Sargento-Mor Diogo de Campos Moreno, with whom Teixeira fought together in Maranhão First arriving in Brazil on 1607, Teixeira participated in Portugal's campaign against French Maranhão, he fought in the Battle of Guaxenduba and distinguished himself commanding either the fort of Natividade or Santa Maria. Because of Teixeira and other Portuguese who pushed into the depths of the Amazon, Portugal was able to obtain far more of South America from their Spanish competitors than the Treaty of Tordesillas had granted in 1494. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Pedro Teixeira has received more than 53,824 page views. His biography is available in 16 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 15 in 2019). Pedro Teixeira is the 1,535th most popular military personnel (down from 1,321st in 2019), the 272nd most popular biography from Portugal (down from 252nd in 2019) and the 2nd most popular Portuguese Military Personnel.