Portugal: An Unlikely Empire

Student Guide

Assignment Summary
For this assignment, you will conduct a source analysis of an excerpt from A History of Portuguese
Overseas Expansion, 1400–1668. You will analyze this source by writing a short response to two
questions.

Background Information
In the early 16th century, Portugal was a small and mostly insignificant kingdom on the western edge of
Europe. By the middle of that century, Portugal possessed a large trading empire that included ports
throughout India, Southeast Asia, and Brazil. Unfortunately for the Portuguese, this period of dominance
was short-lived. Over the course of the 17th century, other European powers managed to push small
Portugal out of the way. But how did this small country quickly become so powerful in the first place? The
reasons for this dramatic rise to power are explained by Malyn Newitt below.

Assignment Instructions
For this project, you are expected to submit Appendix 2.
Step 1: Prepare for the project.
a) Read through the guide before you begin so you know the expectations for this project.
b) If there is anything that is not clear to you, be sure to ask your teacher.
a) Read over the two prompts. Make sure you understand what you are looking for as you read.
Consider writing the two prompts down so that you can make notes on them as you read.
Step 3: Read the excerpt from A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400–1668 in
Appendix 1.
a) Make careful notes as you read.
b) Consider underlining and circling important components of the reading.
Step 4: Complete Appendix 2.
a) Answer the two prompts in the appendix.
b) Include a thesis for the second question.
c) Be sure to include specific facts and evidence from the reading to support your arguments
and conclusions.
Step 5: Evaluate your project using this checklist.
If you can check each box below, you are ready to submit your project.

 Have you answered both questions in Appendix 2?

 Have you written at least two paragraphs for each prompt?
 Did you include a thesis in question 2?
 Have you included facts and evidence from the reading to support your answer?
Step 5: Revise and submit your project.
a) If you were unable to check off all of the requirements on the checklist, go back and make
sure that your project is complete. Save your project before submitting it.

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 Student Guide (continued)

b) Turn in your responses to your teacher. Be sure that your name is on it.
c) Submit your responses through the Virtual Classroom.
d) Congratulations! You have completed your project.

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 Student Guide (continued)

Appendix 1: Reading
The excerpt below comes from a larger work of history on the origins and management of the early
modern Portuguese Empire. In this excerpt, the author explores some of the theories historians have
offered about how Portugal came to expand its influence across the Indian Ocean in the 1500s.
Portugal’s Military Impact in the East
By Malyn Newitt
Two distinct but linked questions are always asked about the impact that Portugal made in the Indian
Ocean between the arrival of Vasco da Gama and the death of Albuquerque. First, how was it
possible for Portugal, so poor, small, weak and distant, to capture great cities like Ormuz, Goa and
Malacca and to lay the western Indian Ocean under tribute, successfully defying the powerful
kingdoms of Asia and the Middle East. The second question, asked in partial answer to the first, is
whether Portugal's impact on Asia was really as great as a reading of the chroniclers might lead one
to suppose. The second of these questions will be examined in the last chapter of this book, but a
consideration of the first needs to form an epilogue to any account of the era of da Gama, Almeida
and Albuquerque.
Most historians have agreed that Portugal arrived in the Indian Ocean at a moment uniquely
favourable for themselves. The great land-based powers of the East—the Delhi sultanate, Hindu
Vijayanagar, Persian, imperial China, and the Ottoman empire were all preoccupied with political
struggles deep within the continental land masses. Warfare in the Middle East and the eastern
Mediterranean had closed the overland spice routes at the end of the fifteenth century. The seaborne
commerce of the Indian Ocean was handled by port-city states which were largely independent of the
mainland powers which derived little of their income from maritime commerce. Indeed imperial China
had closed its ports to outside trade altogether. It has therefore been argued that the great Asiatic
powers simply ignored the arrival of the Portuguese until the latter were too firmly established to be
easily dislodged.
The second explanation, particularly advanced by G.V. Scammell, is that, from the start, the
Portuguese were able to exploit local rivalries and came to rely heavily on the collaboration of local
allies. The rivalries came to rely heavily on the collaboration of local allies. The rivalry of Melinde with
Mombasa in eastern Africa, or Cochin with Calicut on the Malabar coast, are two obvious cases.
Almost from the start the Portuguese began to recruit local soldiers and seamen to supplement their
shortage of manpower. According to this argument, the Portuguese victories were won with the aid of
collaborators and by using the tactics of divide and rule—and not by any superior military or naval
capacity. It was an argument developed to counter the claims made by Carlo Cipolla that it was the
armed warship with its heavy artillery that gave Portugal an overwhelming military advantage.
The role of gunpowder in the story of European overseas expansion is not to be easily dismissed and
remains an important line of argument, especially for those who believe that global capitalism has
triumphed not by the logic of the market but too often by the logic of the gun. The Portuguese
commanders themselves attached a great deal of importance to firearms and were determined to be
properly supplied with guns and experienced artillerymen—Albuquerque even recommended to Dom
Manuel that half the gunners in the fortresses in the East should be Germans who had a reputation for
being the best gunners of the age, and gave permission for a German chapel to be built in Goa.
Morocco had been the school and testing ground for a particularly successful type of warfare. The
Portuguese attacks on Moroccan ports in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had been amphibious
operations. By moving their forces by sea the Portuguese found that they could achieve surprise and
concentrate their forces rapidly at one particular point. Moreover, as Cipolla pointed out, the ships
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 Student Guide (continued)

could carry heavy guns which could be easily and rapidly manoeuvred into position.

Source:
Newitt, Malyn. A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400–1668. London: Routledge Press,
2005, pp. 82–83.

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 Student Guide (continued)

Appendix 2: Questions
1. Summarize the author’s argument and supporting evidence.

2. Why was Portugal successful in Asia? Be sure to amplify the author’s argument as you explain your
answer.

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