Salvador da Bahia was the former colonial capital of a new world country, nowadays known as Brazil. A ship captained by Amerigo Vespucci sailed into an enormous and a most impressive bay at November 1st in 1501. It was the Portuguese day of All Saints and for this reason Amerigo named the bay ‘Bahia de Todos os Santos’ – ‘Bay of All Saints’.
Vespucci and followers settled on the high north bank. The evolving City became known as “Savior of the Bay of all Saints” – “Salvador de Bahia”. The development was fueled by large numbers of African slaves as cheap laborers. Labor to give birth to this enormous country in South America. By the way, captain Amerigo’s map maker named his map of this territory ‘America’. Eventually the name was adopted for both America’s.
Today the Republic of Brazil has twenty-six Federation Units (Unidades Federativas (UF), twenty-seven states (Estados) among which is Bahia, where it all began. Approximately 80% of the Bahian inhabitants have African roots.