The journey of Brazilian Portuguese begins at the end of the 15th century with the Bula Caetera Treaty signed in 1493 and with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. According to these treaties, the Brazilian territory was divided between the Kingdoms of Portugal and Castile. By the second of these treaties, most of the territory, now called Brazil, was handed over to the Portuguese Crown, which meant that there was now more interest in this territory than in the previous period. Preparations began for the first naval expedition to that unknown land. In 1500, under the leadership of Pedro Álvares Cabral, Portuguese colonizers came to a territory where they encountered more than a thousand indigenous languages, which greatly complicated the colonization process. In this article I will highlight the sociolinguistic history of Brazilian Portuguese, which is the outcome of five centuries of (internal) development and (external) historical events which have also increased the number of Brazilian Portuguese speakers.