2. The History of Portugal
• The Portuguese Empire:
• July 25th, 1415 marks the beginning of the Portuguese Empire
– Ceuta, in north Africa, was conquered by Portugal
• Portugal’s continued expansion:
– Porto Santo
– Madeira Island
– Azorean Islands
– Arguim
– Brazil
– Goa
– Gold Coast and more…
• Christopher Columbus:
• In 1484 Portugal rejected Christopher’s idea or reaching India from the west. The
Portuguese thought that Columbus has grossly misjudged the distance to reach
India from the west.
3. The History of Portugal
• The Portuguese became the first civilization to fully start the
process we know today as globalization.
– By 1510 the Portuguese Empire stretched around South
America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
4. The History of Portugal
• The decline of the Portuguese empire: A dynastic crisis
– King Sebastian died in battle in 1578
– Cardinal Henry (late kings granduncle) became king but died to years
later
– Spain invaded in 1580
• The Spanish king became Philip 1 of Portugal
• The Spanish and Portuguese empires came under a single rule
• Portugal remained under Spanish control from 1580 until 1640
5. Portuguese Empire
• The worlds first global empire
• The longest living of the European colonial empires (over 5
centuries)
• The empire covered territories that are now part of 49
different sovereign states
6. Colonial Brazil
• Viceroyalty aka Colonial Brazil spanned from 1500 with the arrival
of the Portuguese until 1815
– In 1815 Brazil became a kingdom as part of the United Kingdom
of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algraves
– The Portuguese colonization of Brazil was primarily based on
economic factors
• Brazilwood
• Sugar
• Gold
• Diamonds
• Slaves
7. Colonial Brazil
• Colonization:
– Brazil was originally setup as 15 private captaincies
• Only two captaincies succeeded by dealing is slaves and sugar, the other
thirteen failed
– In 1549 Tome de Sousa came to Brazil to create a central government
• De Sousa introduced the Jesuits to Brazil
– They set up missions
– Converted many natives to Roman Catholicism
– Assisted the Portuguese in expelling the French
