2. Origins Portugal was the first global empire in history. Portuguese attention turned overseas and towards a military expedition to the Muslim lands of North Africa. Significant losses to the Dutch in Portuguese India and Southeast Asia in the 17th century brought an end to the Portuguese trade monopoly in the Indian Ocean. It offered the opportunity to continue the Christian crusade aspect of the reconquista against Islam. In the military class, the spoils gave this a chance to take expansion of Portuguese trade and to address Portugal's economic decline.
3. Age of Discovery. Men were granted to the trade monopoly for the newly discovered countries,laying the basis for the Portuguese empire. Portuguese navigators reached ever more southerly latitudes, advancing at an average rate of one degree a year. Gomes, who had to explore 100 miles of the coast each year for five years, discovered the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, including São Tomé and Príncipe. Found a thriving gold trade among the natives and visiting Arab and Berber traders. They left behind a series of padrões, stone crosses engraved with the Portuguese coat of arms marking their claims.
