Author of the book Lev Yuryevich Slezkin - Doctor of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher at the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He wrote a number of original studies on the history of the countries of America - "The Spanish-American War of 1898." - M., 1956; "U.S. Policy in South America (1929-1933)." M., 1956; "Russia and the War of Independence in Spanish America." M., 1964; "History of the Cuban Republic." M., 1966 and others. The book offered to the reader's attention tells about the discovery of Pedro Alvarish Cabral the largest country in Latin America - Brazil, which was initially called the Land of the Holy Cross, about the fact that Antarctic France existed on the territory of this country in the middle of the 16th century. about how, under the pressure of the Indians, Portugal almost lost its colony in America, about the brutal suppression of the resistance of the local population and the final consolidation of the colonialists on previously unknown land.