Jesuit Reductions
Starting from the village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga (now São Paulo) the Bandeirantes had explored most of southeast and southwest of current Brazil, effectively taking advantage of the union of the Crowns of Portugal and Spain from 1580 to 1640 to incorporate all the former Spanish territories then west of the Tordesilhas Line. Their goal was to capture new Indian slaves (which put them in conflict with the Jesuit Reductions), recapture runaway slaves and find precious minerals.