The Portuguese Empire

Theme 3 Part IBy: Josh Kessner

History 140Professor Arguello

History of Portugal• Portugal is both a European

and Atlantic nation which had built up a powerful empire in earlier years.

• The empire included parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Astralasia.

• Within the next two centuries, 17th and 18th, Portugal slowly lost much of its wealth as other Nations took over their scattered trading posts.

• Signs of military decline began in the late 16th century

Early Inhabitants of Portugal• Present-day Portugal was

first inhabited way back in time by the Neanderthals and then by the Homo sapiens, our earlier ancestors.

• They traveled around the Northern Iberian Peninsula

• There was some domestication of animals and raising of crops and early in the first millennium BC, many local populations inter-married creating many ethnic groups.

• There were also inhabitants in southern parts of the country.

The Portuguese Empire

• The Portuguese Empire was the first global empire in history!

• The empire also reigned the longest, lasting almost six centuries

• Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419 with developments in navigation and cartography

Expanders of the Empire

• In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope.

• Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498.

• Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil by an accidental landfall.

• As decades continued, Portuguese sailors were continually exploring coastal areas of these large land masses, establishing themselves as they discovered these new territories

Colonial Brazil

• Colonial Brazil is the label given to the time of the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500 until 1815

• In 1815, Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal

• There was a great amount of economic exploration amongst arrival.

• Goods that were found to be of use were brazilwood, sugar, and gold and diamond mining slaves.

• At first Brazil was set up as fifteen private captaincies.

Captaincies of Brazil• In the very first attempt at

colonizing this new found land Brazil, the Portuguese went by the system of hereditary captaincies.

• The costs were transferred to 15 private hands

• These were given to Portuguese noblemen, yet only two of the 15 captaincies prospered.

• The failure of the other captaincies was related to the resistance of the indigenous peoples

• One of the prospering captaincies found it’s success in the harvesting of sugarcane

• Sugar was very valuable in trade with Europe and its production became the main Brazilian colonial produce in the next 150 years.