A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire 2 Volume Pape... by Anthony R. Disney

Slavery started to be seen as a racial division, since most of the slaves were African people. This practice, besides the horrors it created back in those days, had effects that we still see now, almost 500 years later. This set the example for other European powers to do the same on their colonies, soon becoming a generalized thing.Įstimates suggest that about 12 million to 12.8 million Africans were transported in this way to the Americas, in 400 years, with around 2 million losing their lives during the trip and many more being killed after they arrived. In 1526, they did the first transatlantic slave voyage, from the Coast of Africa to Brazil. They would take some products made in Europe and sold them in Africa to buy enslaved people, that they would transport to Brazil to work on plantations and mines, and these products were then sent back to Europe to sell. Moved by the profit motive and the lack of indigenous Americans to do the hard work, the country started a practice called the ‘Triangular Trade’. With the empire they created, the Portuguese also created an evil that would linger in this world and to which the consequences we still see today: the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In 1500, they reached South America and started the colonization of Brazil, which would then become their largest colony and now the Portuguese-speaking country with the largest population. This opened the path to, in 1498, the adventure of Vasco da Gama to reach India by a maritime route, getting access and then dominating the trade of spices from India to Europe. Then, the coast of Africa was explored, where they set trading ports, and in 1488, they finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa.

The Portuguese sailors then started to explore the open sea, discovering the Atlantic islands of the Canaries, Madeira, Azores and Cape Verde, using new technology for navigation and cartography. It started with the exploration of the Portuguese coast and subsequent conquest of cities in the Moroccan coast, with the desire to continue the Reconquista in the North of Africa. The country built a vast empire, having territory all over the world, from South America to Oceania. Starting in the beginning of the “Age of Discovery”, with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415, it lasted until 1999, with the transfer of Macau to China.

The Portuguese Colonial Empire was one of the longest-lived empires in European History.

A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire 2 Volume Pape... by Anthony R. Disney