Portuguese Empire
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The Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the Western European colonial empires, existing from 1415 to 1999.
The conquest of Ceuta in 1415 and the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean in the early 15th century was a consequence of the kingdom's connection to the sea. The creation of a navigation school at Sagres by Henrique the Navigator allowed developments like the caravel and improved the quality of Portuguese cartography. A century later the main objective of a sea route to India was achieved and Portugal extended its possessions to a world distribution, being homeland to such explorers as Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, although the latter sailed for the Spanish crown, Portugal's oceanic rival since 1492.
Portugal's small size and population restricted the empire to a collection of small but well defended outposts along the shoreline. The height of the empire power was reached in the 16th century but the indifference of the Habsburg kings and the competition with new colonial empires like the British, French and Dutch started its long and gradual decline. After the 18th century Portugal concentrated in the colonization of Brazil and African possessions. Brazilian gold gave a new pace to the empire but the catastrophic earthquake of 1755 that seriously affected Lisbon marked the symbolic end of Portuguese influence in the international political sphere. In 1822 Brazil became independent and in 1890 the British Ultimatum ended Portuguese intentions of a similar large colony in Africa.
After World War II, Portugal (ruled by Salazar) tried to resist the decolonization and the Overseas War ensued (1961-1974). Also in 1961, after the liberation of Goa and Daman and Diu by India, Portuguese possessions in Asia were restricted to Macau (strictly a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration) and East Timor. After the Carnation Revolution of 1974, Portugal changed policy and supported the independence of its colonies. The Portuguese overseas Empire finally came to an end when Portugal handed Macau over to China in 1999 although East Timor remained a Portuguese territory de jure until its independence in 2002. The CPLP is the cultural successor of the Empire.
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[edit] The beginnings of the empire (1415-1580)
The countries that we now know as Portugal and Spain spent the Middle Ages after 722 in a centuries-long struggle for land, called the Reconquista, which pitted the Christian Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms against the Islamic occupiers of the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Portuguese Reconquista culminated in 1249 with the conquest of the Algarve by Afonso III, setting the Portuguese borders which have lasted almost unchanged to this day on the Iberian Peninsula. Throughout the 15th century, the Crowns of Aragon and Portugal expanded territorially seawards (the Kingdom of Castile did not complete the conquest of the last Moorish stronghold at Granada until 1492). The Aragonese Empire, which had accomplished its Reconquista in 1266, focused on the Mediterranean Sea while the Portuguese Empire turned to the Atlantic Ocean and North Africa.
Portuguese soldiers captured Ceuta (on the North African coast) in 1415 and again defeated the Moors, who attempted to re-take it in 1418.
In 1419 two of the captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira were driven by a storm to Madeira. In 1427, another Portuguese captain discovered the Azores.
In an expedition to Tangier, undertaken in 1436 by King Edward of Portugal (1433-1438), the Portuguese army was defeated and only escaped destruction by surrendering as hostage Prince Ferdinand, the king's youngest brother. By sea, Prince Henry's captains continued their exploration of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1434, Cape Bojador was crossed; in 1441, the first consignment of slaves was brought to Lisbon; slave trading soon became one of the most profitable branches of Portuguese commerce. Senegal and Cape Verde were reached in 1445. In 1446, António Fernandes pushed on almost as far as Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, colonization progressed in the Azores (from 1439) and Madeira, where sugar and wine were now produced by settlers from Portugal, France and Flanders; above all, gold brought home from Guinea stimulated the commercial energy of the Portuguese. It had become clear that, apart from their religious and scientific aspects, these voyages of discovery were highly profitable.
Under Afonso V, the African (1443–1481), the Gulf of Guinea was explored as far as Cape St Catherine, and three expeditions (1458, 1461, 1471) were sent to Morocco. In 1458, Alcácer Ceguer (El Qsar es Seghir, in Arabic) was taken; in 1471, Arzila (Asila) and Tangier were captured, all from the Moors.
Under John II (1481–1495), the fortress of São Jorge da Mina, the modern Elmina, in Ghana, was founded for the protection of the Guinea trading and became Portugal's West African headquarters until 1637. Diogo Cão discovered Congo in 1482 and reached Cape Cross in 1486. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India and established the first Portuguese outposts there.
The discovery of the sea route around Africa to India and the rest of Asia opened enormous opportunities to trade for Portugal, which it aggressively pursued with the establishment of both trade outposts and fortified bases.
It was the knowledge that India's sea route was eastward around Africa that led to John II's refusal of support to Christopher Columbus's offer to reach India by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. (Columbus's next turned successfully to Queen Isabella of Castile, and his unintended discovery of the West Indies led to to the establishment of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.)
The Portuguese Empire was guaranteed by the papal bull of 1493 and the Treaty of Tordesillas of 6 June 1494. These two actions (and related bulls and treaties) divided the world outside of Europe in an exclusive duopoly between the Portuguese and the Spanish. The dividing line in the Western Hemisphere was established along a north-south meridian 370 leagues (1550 km; 970 miles) west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa) (and the antipodal line extended around the globe to divide the Eastern Hemisphere). As a result, all of Africa and almost all of Asia would belong to Portugal, while almost all of the New World would belong to Spain.
In East Africa, small Islamic states along the coast of Mozambique, Kilwa, Brava and Mombasa were destroyed, or became either subjects or allies of Portugal. Pêro da Covilhã had reached Ethiopia, travelling secretly, as early as 1490; a diplomatic mission reached the ruler of that nation October 19, 1520. Explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, on April 22, 1500, landed in what is today Porto Seguro, Brazil and temporary trading posts were established to collect brazilwood, used as a dye. In the Arabian Sea, Socotra was occupied in 1506, and in the same year Lourenço d'Almeida visited Ceylon. In the Indian Ocean, one of Pedro Álvares Cabral's ships discovered Madagascar, which was partly explored by Tristão da Cunha in 1507, the same year Mauritius was discovered. In 1509, the Portuguese won the sea Battle of Diu against the combined forces of Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II, Sultan of Gujarat, Mamlûk Sultan of Cairo, Samoothiri Raja of Kozhikode, Venetian Republic, and Ragusan Republic (Dubrovnik). A second Battle of Diu in 1538 finally ended Ottoman ambitions in India and confirmed Portuguese hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
Portugal established trading ports at far-flung locations like Goa, Malacca, the Maluku Islands, Macau, and Nagasaki. Guarding its trade from both European and Asian competitors, Portugal dominated not only the trade between Asia and Europe, but also much of the trade between different regions of Asia, such as India, Indonesia, China, and Japan. Jesuit missionaries, such as the Spanish Francis Xavier, followed the Portuguese to spread Roman Catholic Christianity to Asia with mixed success.
In 1503, an expedition under the command of Gonçalo Coelho found the French making incursions on the land that is today Brazil and looting it. John III, in 1530, organized the colonization of Brazil around 15 capitanias hereditárias ("hereditary captainships"), that were given to anyone who wanted to administer and explore them. That same year, there was a new expedition from Martim Afonso de Souza with orders to patrol the whole Brazilian coast, banish the French, and create the first colonial towns: São Vicente on the coast, and São Paulo on the border of the altiplane. From the 15 original captainships, only two, Pernambuco and São Vicente, prospered. With permanent settlement came the establishment of the sugar cane industry and its intensive labor demands which were met with Native American and later African slaves. Deeming the capitanias system ineffective, Tomé de Sousa, the first Governor-General was sent to Brazil in 1549. He built the capital of Brazil, Salvador at the Bay of All Saints. The first Jesuits arrived the same year.
From 1565 through 1567 Mem de Sá, a Portuguese colonial official and the third Governor General of Brazil, successfully destroyed a ten year-old French colony called France Antarctique, at Guanabara Bay. He and his nephew, Estácio de Sá, then founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1567.
In 1578, the Portuguese crusaders crossed into Morocco and were routed by Ahmed Mohammed of Fez, at the Alcazarquivir (Field of the Three Kings). King Sebastian of Portugal was almost certainly killed in battle or subsequently executed. This battle marked the end of Portugal's global ambitions.
[edit] The Habsburg kings (1580-1640)
From 1580 to 1640, the throne of Portugal was held by the Habsburg kings of Spain resulting in the biggest colonial empire until then (see Iberian Union). In 1583 Philip II of Spain as king of Portugal sent his combined Iberian fleet to clear the French traders from the Azores, decisively hanging his prisoners-of-war from the yardarms and contributing to the "Black Legend". The Azores were the last part of Portugal to resist Philip's reign over Portugal.
In the Americas, the Portuguese expansion continue beyond the west side by the meridian set by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portugal was able to mount a military expedition, which defeated and expelled the French colonists of France Équinoxiale in 1615, less than four years after their arrival in the land. On April 30th of 1625, the fleet under the command of Fadrique de Toledo recovered the city of Salvador de Bahia to the Dutch. The square was composed by 22 Portuguese ships, 34 Spanish ships and 12,500 men (three quarters were Spanish and the rest were Portuguese).
However, 1627 saw the collapse of the Castilian economy. The Dutch, who during the Twelve Years’ Truce had made their navy a priority, devastated Spanish maritime trade after the resumption of war, on which Spain was wholly dependent after the economic collapse. Even with a number of victories Spanish resources were now fully stretched across Europe and also at sea protecting their vital shipping against the greatly improved Dutch fleet. Spain's enemies, such as the Netherlands and England, coveted its overseas wealth, and in many cases found it easier to attack poorly-defended Portuguese outposts than Spanish ones. The Spanish were simply no longer able to cope with naval threats. Thus the Dutch-Portuguese War came into being.
Between 1638 and 1640 the Netherlands came to control part of Brazil's Northeast region, with their capital in Recife. The Portuguese won a significant victory in the Second Battle of Guararapes in 1649. By 1654, the Netherlands had surrendered and returned control of all Brazilian land to the Portuguese.
Although Dutch colonies in Brazil were wiped out, during the course of the 17th century the Dutch were able to occupy Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and the East Indies, and to take over the trade with Japan at Nagasaki. Portugal's Far Eastern territories were reduced to bases at Macau and East Timor.
[edit] The Empire of Brazil (1640-1822)
In 1661 the Portuguese gave Bombay and Tangier to England as part of a dowry, and over the next hundred years the British would gradually become the dominant power in India as the Moghul Empire disintegrated, excluding other powers almost completely from trading there. Portugal was able to cling onto Goa and several minor bases through the remainder of the colonial period.
In 1755 Lisbon suffered a catastrophic earthquake, which together with a subsequent tsunami killed more than 100,000 people out of a population of 275,000. This sharply checked Portuguese colonial ambitions in the late 18th century.
Although initially less important, Brazil would become the main centre for Portuguese colonial ambitions, from which Portugal gathered resources such as gold, precious stones, sugar cane, coffee and other cash crops. Voluntary immigration from Europe and the slave trade from Africa increased its population immensely (today Brazil is the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world).
Unlike the Spanish, the Portuguese did not divide its colonial territory in America. The captaincies there created were subdued to a centralized administration in Salvador which reported directly to the Crown in Lisbon.
In 1789, there was the Inconfidência Mineira, a rebel movement that failed, and the leader of which, Tiradentes, was hanged.
In 1808, the French troops of Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Portugal, and Dom João, prince regent in place of his mother, Dona Maria I, ordered the transfer of the royal court to Brazil. In 1815 Brazil was elevated to the condition of kingdom, the Portuguese state officially becoming the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves (Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil e Algarves). There was also the election of Brazilian representatives to the Cortes Constitucionais Portuguesas (Portuguese Constitutional Courts).
Dom João, fleeing from Napoleon's army, moved the seat of government to Brazil in 1808. Brazil thereupon became a kingdom under Dom João VI. Although the royal family returned to Portugal in 1821, the interlude led to a growing desire for independence amongst Brazilians. In 1822, the son of Dom João VI, then prince-regent Dom Pedro I, proclaimed the independence, September 7, 1822, and was crowned emperor.
[edit] The African Empire (1822-1945)
By the height of European colonialism in the 19th century, Portugal had lost its territory in South America and all but a few bases in Asia. During this phase, Portuguese colonialism focused on expanding its outposts in Africa into nation-sized territories to compete with other European powers there. Portuguese territories eventually included the modern nations of Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique.
[edit] Decline and Fall (1945-1999)
In the wake of World War II, other European nations began abandoning their colonies either voluntarily or involuntarily. Portugal refused to enter this process voluntarily, and was the last nation to retain its major colonies. In 1961, Goa and the rest of Portuguese India were taken by India[1][2]. In Portuguese Africa a decade-long war broke out with various resistance groups, in great part a consequence of the "proxy war" between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
In fact, it was the Cold War that destroyed the Portuguese empire, as the USA and USSR tried to increase their spheres of influence. The cost of the unsuccessful war against the various guerilla movements overseas eventually led to collapse of the Salazar regime in 1974 (the "Carnation Revolution"). One of the first acts of the democratic government which then came into power was to end the wars and negotiate Portuguese withdrawal from its African colonies. In both Mozambique and Angola a civil war promptly broke out, with incoming communist governments formed by the former rebels (and backed by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and other communist countries) fighting against insurgent groups supported by nations like Zaire, South Africa, and the United States.
East Timor also became independent at this time, but was promptly invaded by neighbouring Indonesia, which occupied it until 1999.
The Portuguese overseas empire finally came to an end when Portugal handed Macau over to China in 1999 under the terms of a negotiated agreement similar to the one under which the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong.
The seven former colonies of Portugal that are now independent nations, together with Portugal, are members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
[edit] Territories of the Portuguese empire
[edit] in Africa
- Angola/Portuguese West Africa - colony (1575-1589); crown colony (1589-1951); overseas province (1951-1971); state (1971-1975). Independence in 1975.
- Arguin/Arguim - (1455-1633)
- Accra (1557-1578)
- Cabinda - protectorate (1883-1887); Congo district (1887-1921); intendancy subordinate to Maquela (1921-1922); dependency of Zaire district (1922-1930); Intendacy of Zaire and Cabinda (1930-1932); intendancy under Angola (1932-1934); dependency under Angola (1934-1945); restored as District (1946-1975). Controlled by Frente Nacional para a Libertação de Angola (National Liberation Front of Angola) as part of independent Angola in 1975. Declared Cabinda a Republic in 1975, but not recognized by Portugal nor Angola.
- Cabo Verde/Cape Verde - settlements (1462-1495); dominion of crown colonies (1495-1587); crown colony (1587-1951); overseas province (1951-1974); autonomous republic (1974-1975). Independence in 1975.
- Ceuta - possession (1415-1640). Became spanish in 1640.
- Elmina - possession (1482-1637)
- Fernando Póo and Annobón - colonies (1474-1778). Ceded to Spain in 1778.
- Portuguese Gold Coast - (1482-1642), ceded to Dutch Gold Coast in 1642
- Guiné Portuguesa/Portuguese Guinea - colony (1879-1951); overseas province (1951-1974). Unilateral independence declared in 1973, recognized by Portugal in 1974.
- Madagascar - southern part (1496-1550)
- Mascarene Islands - fortified post (1498-1540)
- Malindi - occupation (1500-1630)
- Mombassa - occupation (1593-1638); colony subordinate to Goa (1638-1698; 1728-1729). Under Omani sovereignty in 1729.
- Morocco enclaves
- Aguz/Souira Guedima (1506-1525)
- Alcacer Ceguer/El Qsar es Seghir (1458-1550)
- Arzila/Asilah (1471-1550; 1577-1589). Restored to Morocco in 1589.
- Azamor/Azemmour (1513-1541). City restored to Morocco in 1541.
- Mazagan/El Jadida (1485-1550); possession (1506-1769). Incorporation into Morocco in 1769.
- Mogador/Essaouira (1506-1510)
- Safim/Safi (1488-1541)
- Santa Cruz do Cabo de Gué/Agadir (1505-1541)
- Mozambique/Portuguese East Africa) - possession (1498-1501); subordinate to Goa (1501-1569); captaincy-general (1569-1609); colony subordinate to Goa (1609-1752); colony (1752-1951); overseas province (1951-1971); state (1971-1974); local transitional administration (1974-1975). Independence in 1975.
- Quíloa (1505-1512)
- Saint Laurent Islands (Madagascar) - fortified post (1498-1540)
- São João Baptista de Ajudá - fort subordinate to Brazil (1721-1730); subordinate to São Tomé e Príncipe (1865-1869). Annexed by Dahomey in 1961.
- São Tomé e Príncipe - crown colony (1753-1951); overseas province (1951-1971); local administration (1971-1975). Independence in 1975.
- Tangier - possession (1471-1662). Ceded to England in 1662.
- Zanzibar - possession (1503-1698). Became part of Oman in 1698.
- Ziguinchor - possession (1645-1888). Ceded to France in 1888.
[edit] in the Americas & North Atlantic
- Azores - colonies (1427-1766); captaincy-general (1766-1831); autonomous districts of Angra do Heroismo, Horta and Ponta Delgada (1831-1976). Made an autonomous region in 1976.
- Brazil - possession known as Ilha de Santa Cruz, later Terra de Vera Cruz (1500-1530); colony (1530- 1714); vice-kingdom (1714-1815); kingdom under United Kingdom of Portugal (1815-1822), independence in 1822.
- Cisplatina (Uruguay) - occupation (1808-1822). Captaincy in 1817 (of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves). Adhered as a province of the new Empire of Brazil in 1822. Became independent 1827, changing its name to Uruguay.
- French Guiana - occupation (1809-1817). Restored to France in 1817.
- Madeira - possession (1418-1420); colony (1420-1580); crown colony (1580-1834); autonomous district (1834-1976). Made an autonomous region in 1976.
- Nova Colônia do Sacramento - colony in present Uruguay (1680; 1683-1705; 1715-1777). Ceded to Spain in 1777.
[edit] In Asia
- Banda Islands (1512-1621)
- Bahrain - possession (1521-1602)
- Burma - settled by Portuguese merchants in the 1600s and led by Felipe de Britto (colony called Syriam, not renamed Thanlyn).
- Ceylon - colony (1597-1658). Dutch took control in 1656, Jaffna taken in 1658.
- Flores Island - possession (16th-19th century)
- Gamru/Bandar Abbas - possession (1506-1615)
- Hormuz/Ormuz - possession subordinate to Goa (1515-1622). Incorporated into Persia in 1622.
- Laccadive Islands (1498-1545)
- Macau/Macao - settlement (1553-1557), leased territory subordinated to Goa (1557-1844); overseas province (1844-1883); combined overseas province with Timor-Leste under Goa (1883-1951); overseas province (1951-1976); Chinese territory under Portuguese administration (1976-1999). Returned to full sovereignty of People's Republic of China) as a special administrative region in 1999.
- Coloane - occupation in 1864
- Taipa - occupation in 1851
- Ilha Verde - incorporated in 1890
- D. João, Lapa and Montanha Islands - settled by Portuguese missionaries in the XIX century; occupation by Portuguese troops in 1938. Taken in 1941 by the Empire of Japan and restored to China in 1945.
- Makassar (1512-1665)
- Malacca - settlement (1511-1641); lost to the Dutch
- Maldives - possession (1518-1521, 1558-1573)
- Moluccas
- Muscat - possession (1515-1650)
- Nagasaki (Deshima) (1571-1639)
- Índia Portuguesa/Portuguese India - overseas province (1946-1962). Taken over by India in 1962 and recognised by Portugal in 1974.
- Baçaim/Vasai - possession (1535-1739)
- Bombay/Mumbai - possession (1534-1661)
- Calicut/Kozhikode - settlement (1512-1525)
- Cambay/Khambhat - possession
- Cannanore - possession (1502-1663)
- Chaul - possession (1521-1740)
- Chittagong - possession (1528-1666)
- Cochin - possession (1500–1663)
- Cranganore - possession (1536-1662)
- Damão/Daman - acquisition in 1559. Became part of overseas province in 1946. Invaded by India in Dec 1961.
- Diu - acquisition in 1535. Became part of overseas province in 1946. Invaded by India in Dec 1961.
- Dadra - acquisition in 1779. Invaded by India in 1954.
- Goa - colony (1510-1946). Became part of overseas province in 1946. Invaded by India in Dec 1961.
- Hughli - possession (1579-1632)
- Nagar Haveli - acquisition in 1779. Invaded by India in 1954.
- Masulipatnam (1598-1610)
- Mangalore (1568-1659)
- Negapatam/Nagapattinam (1507-1657)
- Paliacate (1518-1610). Occupied by the Dutch in 1610.
- Coulão/Quilon - possession (1502-1661)
- Salsette Island - possession (1534-1601). Ceded to Britain in 1601.
- São Tomé de Meliapore - settlement (1523-1662; 1687-1749)
- Surat - settlement (1540-1612)
- Tuticorin/Thoothukudi (1548-1658)
- Socotra - possession (1506-1511). Became part of Mahri Sultanate of Qishn and Suqutra
- Timor-Leste (East-Timor) - colony subordinate to Portuguese India (1642-1844); subordinate to Macau (1844-1896); separate colony (1896-1951); overseas territory (1951-1975); republic and unilateral indepedence proclaimed, annexed by Indonesia (1975-1999, UN recognition as Portuguese territory). UN administration from 1999 until independence in 2002.
[edit] Table
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources, References & External links
- Portuguese Empire Timeline
- Japanese Screen Painting of the Portuguese in the Indies(Enlarge)
- Dutch Portuguese Colonial HistoryDutch Portuguese Colonial History: history of the Portuguese and the Dutch in Ceylon, India, Malacca, Bengal, Formosa, Africa, Brazil. Language Heritage, lists of remains, maps.
- Current and Former Colonies and Possessions of Portugual from World Statesmen
- The Portuguese and the East (in Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Thai) with English introduction.
- WorldStatesmen
- Sizes of the largest Empires in History:"To Rule the Earth"
- The First Global Village by Martin Page
de:Portugiesische Kolonien es:Imperio Portugués fr:Empire colonial portugais it:Impero portoghese nl:Portugese koloniën ja:ポルトガル海上帝国 pl:Portugalskie imperium kolonialne pt:Império Português ru:Португальская империя fi:Portugalilainen imperiumi zh:葡萄牙殖民地
