Brazil is named after a tree (pau-brasil) from which Portuguese, during the colonization period, extracted red colored liquid to paint fabric.
First, when the Portuguese got there they called the land as "Ilha de Vera Cruz" (Vera Cruz Island), when they realise that was not an island they changed it's name to "Terra de Santa Cruz" (Land of Santa Cruz)
And just later, when they started to extract this wood from a tree named "Pau-Brasil" to avoid loosing the territory (specially for France, that was interested in it) by occupying it. Because of the extraction of this tree, they changed the name to "Brasil" (Brazil)
First answer by ID3378285945. Last edit by Jorgepeixoto. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 10 [recommend question]
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