This question has been bugging me ever since I first read about "the Brazils" in Robinson Crusoe. So why was Brazil called "the Brazils" originally and when did people stop referring to the area in the plural and why? In this article both the singular and the plural are used and this is from 1843. So evidently the change didn't occur until relatively recently in the hundreds of years of Brazilian history (from the time it acquired the moniker "Brazil" that is). Also, I can't recall exactly where I read it (and it may be erroneous) but I also recall that Brazil changed it's name to "Brasil" at some point (I know it is called "Brasil" in Portuguese, but I got the impression that this change was as a result of some kind of early spelling reform). Does anyone have any access to any documents in the original Portuguese from the 1800s showing how they spelt the name of the country in Portuguese back then?