The Portuguese Empire (Portuguese: Imp�rio Portugu�s), also known as the Portuguese

Overseas (Ultramar Portugu�s) or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (Imp�rio Colonial

Portugu�s), was composed of the overseas colonies and territories governed by
Portugal. One of the longest-lived empires in world history, it existed for almost
six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415, to the handover of Portuguese
Macau to China in 1999. The empire began in the 15th century, and from the early
16th century it stretched across the globe, with bases in North and South America,
Africa, and various regions of Asia and Oceania.[1][2][3]

The Portuguese Empire originated at the beginning of the Age of Discovery, and the
power and influence of the Kingdom of Portugal would eventually expand across the
globe. In the wake of the Reconquista, Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast
of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos in 1418�19, using recent developments in
navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, with the aim
of finding a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice-trade. In 1488
Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached
India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the crown's secret design,
Pedro �lvares Cabral reached what would be Brazil.

Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and
islands of East Asia, establishing forts and factories as they went. By 1571 a
string of naval outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts of Africa,
the Middle East, India and South Asia. This commercial network and the colonial
trade had a substantial positive impact on Portuguese economic growth (1500�1800),
when it accounted for about a fifth of Portugal's per-capita income.

When King Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal) seized the Portuguese crown in
1580 there began a 60-year union between Spain and Portugal known to subsequent
historiography as the Iberian Union. The realms continued to have separate
administrations. As the King of Spain was also King of Portugal, Portuguese
colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to
Spain: the Dutch Republic, England, and France. With its smaller population,
Portugal found itself unable to effectively defend its overstretched network of
trading posts, and the empire began a long and gradual decline. Eventually, Brazil
became the most valuable colony of the second era of empire (1663�1825), until, as
part of the wave of independence movements that swept the Americas during the early
19th century, it broke away in 1822.

The third era of empire covers the final stage of Portuguese colonialism after the
independence of Brazil in the 1820s. By then, the colonial possessions had been
reduced to forts and plantations along the African coastline (expanded inland
during the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century), Portuguese Timor, and
enclaves in India (Portuguese India) and China (Portuguese Macau). The 1890 British
Ultimatum led to the contraction of Portuguese ambitions in Africa.

Under Ant�nio Salazar (in office 1932�1968), the Estado Novo dictatorship made some
ill-fated attempts to cling on to its last remaining colonies. Under the ideology
of Pluricontinentalism, the regime renamed its colonies "overseas provinces" while
retaining the system of forced labour, from which only a small indigenous �lite was
normally exempt. In 1961 India annexed Goa and Dahomey annexed Fort of S�o Jo�o
Baptista de Ajud�. The Portuguese Colonial War in Africa lasted from 1961 until the
final overthrow of the Estado Novo regime in 1974. The Carnation Revolution of
April 1974 in Lisbon led to the hasty decolonization of Portuguese Africa and to
the 1975 annexation of Portuguese Timor by Indonesia. Decolonization prompted the
exodus of nearly all the Portuguese colonial settlers and of many mixed-race people
from the colonies. Portugal returned Macau to China in 1999. The only overseas
possessions to remain under Portuguese rule, the Azores and Madeira, both had
overwhelmingly Portuguese populations, and Lisbon subsequently changed their
constitutional status from "overseas provinces" to "autonomous regions".
Contents
1 History
1.1 Background (1139�1415)
1.2 First era (1415�1663)
1.2.1 Initial African coastline excursions
1.2.2 Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
1.2.3 Portuguese enter the Indian Ocean
1.2.4 Trade with Maritime Asia, Africa and the Indian Ocean
1.2.4.1 Goa, Malacca and Southeast Asia
1.2.4.2 China and Japan
1.2.4.3 Spice Islands (Moluccas) and Treaty of Zaragoza
1.2.4.4 South Asia, Persian Gulf and Red Sea
1.2.4.5 Sub-Saharan Africa
1.2.4.6 Missionary expeditions
1.2.5 Colonization efforts in the Americas
1.2.5.1 Canada
1.2.5.2 Brazil
1.2.6 Iberian Union, Protestant rivalry, and colonial stasis (1580�1663)
1.3 Second era (1663�1822)
1.3.1 Minas Gerais and the gold industry
1.3.2 Pombaline and post-Pombaline Brazil
1.3.3 Brazilian Independence
1.4 Third era (1822�1999)
1.4.1 British Ultimatum and end of Portuguese monarchy (1890�1910)
1.4.2 World War I
1.4.3 Decolonization (1951�1999)
2 Legacy
3 See also
4 References
4.1 Citations
4.2 Explanatory footnotes
4.3 General sources
5 External links
History
Background (1139�1415)
Main article: History of Portugal (1139�1415)

The Conquest of Ceuta, in 1415, was led by Henry the Navigator and initiated the
Portuguese Empire.
The origin of the Kingdom of Portugal lay in the reconquista, the gradual
reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors.[4] After establishing itself as
a separate kingdom in 1139, Portugal completed its reconquest of Moorish territory
by reaching Algarve in 1249, but its independence continued to be threatened by
neighbouring Castile until the signing of the Treaty of Ayll�n in 1411.[5]

Free from threats to its existence and unchallenged by the wars fought by other
European states, Portuguese attention turned overseas and towards a military
expedition to the Muslim lands of North Africa.[6] There were several probable
motives for their first attack, on the Marinid Sultanate (in present-day Morocco).
It offered the opportunity to continue the Christian crusade against Islam; to the
military class, it promised glory on the battlefield and the spoils of war;[7] and
finally, it was also a chance to expand Portuguese trade and to address Portugal's
economic decline.[6]

In 1415 an attack was made on Ceuta, a strategically located North African Muslim
enclave along the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the terminal ports of the trans-
Saharan gold and slave trades. The conquest was a military success, and marked one
of the first steps in Portuguese expansion beyond the Iberian Peninsula,[8] but it
proved costly to defend against the Muslim forces that soon besieged it. The
Portuguese were unable to use it as a base for further expansion into the
hinterland,[9] and the trans-Saharan caravans merely shifted their routes to bypass
Ceuta and/or used alternative Muslim ports.[10]

First era (1415�1663)

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Main articles: History of Portugal (1415�1578) and Portuguese discoveries
See also: European enclaves in North Africa before 1830
Although Ceuta proved to be a disappointment for the Portuguese, the decision was
taken to hold it while exploring along the Atlantic African coast.[10] A key
supporter of this policy was Infante Dom Henry the Navigator, who had been involved
in the capture of Ceuta, and who took the lead role in promoting and financing
Portuguese maritime exploration until his death in 1460.[11] At the time, Europeans
did not know what lay beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast. Henry wished to
know how far the Muslim territories in Africa extended, and whether it was possible
to reach Asia by sea, both to reach the source of the lucrative spice trade and
perhaps to join forces with the fabled Christian kingdom of Prester John that was
rumoured to exist somewhere in the "Indies".[7][12] Under his sponsorship, soon the
Atlantic islands of Madeira (1419) and Azores (1427) were reached and started to be
settled, producing wheat for export to Portugal.[13]

P�ro da Covilh� and Afonso de Paiva's common route to Aden in 1487�1488 (green)
Covilh�'s travel 1489��1490 (orange)
Covilh�'s travel to Ethiopia 1490��1530? (blue)
Vasco da Gama's travel 1497�1499 (black)
The main Portuguese goal was trade, not colonization or conquest. Soon its ships
were bringing into the European market highly valued gold, ivory, pepper, cotton,
sugar, and slaves. The slave trade, for example, was conducted by a few dozen
merchants in Lisbon. In the process of expanding the trade routes, Portuguese
navigators mapped unknown parts of Africa, and began exploring the Indian Ocean. In
1487, an overland expedition by P�ro da Covilh� made its way to India, exploring
trade opportunities with the Indians and Arabs, and winding up finally in Ethiopia.
His detailed report was eagerly read in Lisbon, which became the best informed
center for global geography and trade routes.[14]

Initial African coastline excursions

Fears of what lay beyond Cape Bojador, and whether it was possible to return once
it was passed, were assuaged in 1434 when it was rounded by one of Infante Henry's
captains, Gil Eanes. Once this psychological barrier had been crossed, it became
easier to probe further along the coast.[15] In 1443 Infante Dom Pedro, Henry's
brother and by then regent of the Kingdom, granted him the monopoly of navigation,
war and trade in the lands south of Cape Bojador. Later this monopoly would be
enforced by the papal bulls Dum Diversas (1452) and Romanus Pontifex (1455),
granting Portugal the trade monopoly for the newly discovered lands.[16] A major
advance that accelerated this project was the introduction of the caravel in the
mid-15th century, a ship that could be sailed closer to the wind than any other in
operation in Europe at the time.[17] Using this new maritime technology, Portuguese
navigators reached ever more southerly latitudes, advancing at an average rate of
one degree a year.[18] Senegal and Cape Verde Peninsula were reached in 1445.[19]