The Portuguese empire (1415-1999) was the first and the last of the empires of western Europe. It sold black pepper from the Spice Islands and black men from Africa. It helped to spread the Catholic faith, especially to Africa and Asia, and made Portuguese a language spoken by more people than French. The empire gave birth to Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and other countries.
At one time or other Portugal ruled parts or all of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Indonesia, East Timor, Bahrain, Barbados, Nagasaki in Japan, Tanzania, Kenya, Yemen, Morocco, Uruguay, Sri Lanka, Goa in India and Macao in China, among others.
From 1000 to 1300 the Portuguese Christians took over what is now Portugal from the Moors. But in a sense they never stopped: in the 1400s they kept on going, down the coast of Africa. By 1498 they had reached India, by 1571, Japan. They had ports and outposts all along the coasts of Africa and Asia, from Lisbon to Nagasaki. The empire was at its height – not in land, but in power, trade and wealth.
Treaty of Tordesillas: The groundwork for this was laid in 1494, two years after Columbus discovered the Americas. The pope divided the world outside Europe in half between Portugal and Spain. In effect Portugal got Brazil and all of Africa and Asia except the Philippines.
The agreement held long enough among European powers to shape both empires. Portuguese power in its half of the world was not challenged till the 1600s by the Dutch. In 1500 the Portuguese had the best ships in the world, but by 1600 it was the Dutch.
The Dutch fought the Portuguese everywhere, even in Brazil. Portugal managed to hold onto Brazil, but lost Ceylon and the Spice Islands (Sri Lanka and Indonesia). Worse than mere land, they lost control of trade from the East. The glory days of the empire were over.
In the 1700s Brazil became the jewel of the empire. Brazil had sugar, gold, diamonds, cacao and tobacco. Black slaves worked the land. With the growth of Brazil inland, the empire reached its height in terms of land.
The early 1800s brought the wars of Napoleon. The king fled to Brazil. Rio, not Lisbon, was the seat of the empire for a while. But after the wars Portugal was no longer strong enough to hold onto Brazil. It became independent in 1825.
This was a huge shock. To make up for its loss, Portugal turned its attention to its possessions in Africa, especially Angola and Mozambique.
In the late 1900s the empire came to an end.
In 1974 Salazar fell from power in Portugal and nearly all of the remaining countries of the empire were freed: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sao Tome & Principe and East Timor. Some of these sank into wars of succession, particularly Angola and Mozambique. Indonesia took over East Timor, killing a third of its people.
But even then Portugal still had Macao near Hong Kong. That was given back to China in 1999, the last bit of the empire to go.
See also:
[…] Portuguese empire , Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe and East Timor. Some of these sank into wars of succession […]
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Ironically, the Portuguese were the first AND last of the great European overseas colonial empires.
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Lots of influences still today in all those regions. I can’t recall, but there is even a region in India where the food still bares striking resemblance to cuisine I enjoy in Brasil from my mother-in-law. -Sarapatel In Salvador, Bahia, it is made with beef lung among other similar “goodies”.
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Portugal didn’t have an empire in the same sense that Spain and Britain did, though. The Portuguese mainly set up coastal trading stations and didn’t venture far inland. Spain, on the other hand, conquered entire civilizations (i.e. Aztec, Inca) and transformed them into Hispanic/Indian hybrid societies.
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“Portugal didn’t have an empire in the same sense that Spain and Britain did” !?!?!??!?!?!!?
Is that so ?!?!?
Who have conquered the “infinite” inland of Brazil ???
what about inland of Angola and Mozambique ?!?!? who did so?!?
Just to mention conqueredd and colonization!
Otherwise let me tell you my “friend” that Portuguese conquered much earlier a siginificant part of that which became later the Bristish Empire
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Why Gabon is not shown in your second card? It was the Portuguese who arrived first. they named this area “Gabao”. Multiple site names are Portuguese. You did not mention Sao Tome. This is an island nation off the coast of Gabon.
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Good history! How did Spain get involved?
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Nitpicking:
This Dutch didn’t fight Portugal. With the death of Dom Sebastião around 1590, the rules of succession made Philip II of Spain, a Habsburg, King of Portugal. Netherlands were fighting the Habsburgs, so they did strike where the Habs were weaker, and where they could find local allies. But after the coup of 1631, Portugal separated from Spain.
The Portuguese in Brazil then took the iniciative to expell the Dutch from Brazil and from Angola
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@abagond
Something that you may use if/when you write a post about Portugal
The brazilian civil war 2003-2018 made a lot of us migrate to Portugal, seen like a peaceful Garden of Eden. But maybe that’s just a white POV:
https://www.geledes.org.br/mamadou-ba-em-15-anos-mais-de-10-jovens-negros-morreram-nas-maos-da-policia/
10 black boys killed by the police in 15 years is still much less than the 7500 black boys killed per year in Brazil (7500 = 60000 per year x 1/6 killed by the police x 3/4 are black), but it’s 10 more than the ideal number
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