🇵🇹

• 1415 - Portuguese arrive in Ceuta, Morocco

  • Portugal was on the search for a new trade road to India.
  • Henry the Navigator → Portuguese prince → responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade with other continents.
• The reasons for Portugal to explore and colonise:

  • Location
  • Fighting Muslims
  • Ottomans blocked old trade routes with the East
  • Portuguese nation < Reconquista (re-capture) on Muslims
  • Aspirations
  • Hope to find gold
  • Pester John and a grand alliance of Christians
  • There was a legend (with a core of truth) about pester John, who was said to have left behind a lot of gold
• 1498 - Vasco da Gama arrives in Calicut, India
• 1500 - Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches Brazil

  • Not only trade, but also plantations
  • Gradually more to the inland for slaves and gems
  • Immigration of Europeans and African slaves
• 1510 - Alfonso de Albuquerque arrives in Goa, India

  Goa → capital of the Portuguese colonial empire

  • Estado da India
  • Dominance of the oceans
  • Armed ships
  • Enclaves (fortified settlements)
  • No conquest of land due to demographic incapacity
  • Trade with Europe
  • 40% of pepper trade
  • Taxation of trade on the Indian Ocean
• 1578 - Portugal Defeated by Morocco at El Ksar-el-Kebir

  > Beginning of the disintegration of Portugal as coloniser
• • Death of King Sebastian
  • 1580-1640: Portugal occupied by Spain
  • 1588-1654: weakened by Spain’s wars
  • Dutch and English victories in Asia
  • Portugal loses inter alia Malacca and Ceylon
  • Portugal keeps Macau, Portuguese India and East Timor
  • Portuguese victories in Brazil and Africa
  • 19th c.: loss of Brazil & expansion in Africa
• 1808 - Portuguese king João VI settles in Brazil

  → Brazil was different in the Napoleonic era

  After Napoleon had conquered Portugal, the Portuguese king flees to Brazil (→ which is pretty unique, as monarchs have never visited their colonies before)

  He returns to Portugal in 1821

  • Restoration of old balance between Lisbon and Brazil
  • But his son Dom Pedro stays in Brazil to rule

  → there is a lot of frustration in Brazil, Dom Pedro supports the nationalists

  → 1822: Brazilian independence under Emperor Pedro

  This all happened somewhat peacefully
• 1974 - Decolonisation after Carnation Revolution

  → Carnation Revolution → was a military coup by left-leaning military officers, It resulted in the Portuguese transition to democracy and the end of the Portuguese Colonial War.