# Geopolitics of colonial imperial Brazil and the African diaspora  
We can understand the historical movement of the great navigations as a direct consequence of the geographical process of territorial domination that was developed, matured and implemented by European powers, especially those of the Iberian Peninsula. The geographical horizon of its land area was significantly expanded by the coming together of new cultures, identities and territorialities. The result of this was a profound change to world cartography from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, especially in terms of the new territories incorporated, the new borders established and enforced, and significant development in the techniques of the discipline.  
This long period in human history was characterized by a new phase in the relationship between humans and nature. Geography and cartography developed within this context and were used to serve this major project for a justified dominance of the world. The Atlantic Ocean served as an important stepping stone for the main economic and trade flows from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, involving Europe, Africa and America. Goods from Europe, the Orient and the colonies crossed the seas, along with the slave ships departing from the network of European ports and the coasts of the African continent. This ocean became the great cemetery of the centuries for the African-American diaspora.