Compare And Contrast The Portuguese Empire

Both countries have transplanted cultures: Portugal for Brazil and Great Britain for USA, but the process of colonization that started in Brazil differs from the process of colonization of the USA, for example. Europeans didn’t go to Brazil to live and develop the territory for their own benefit. Actually, they went there to explore its rich natural recourses and came back home with lots of money.

In contrast to the independence movements of Spanish Latin America, Brazilian independence came simply and peacefully. The Portuguese royal family took refuge in Brazil in 1807. This transformed Rio de Janiero into a court city. The prince regent Joao addressed complaints of the locals that were similar to those of the Spanish Creoles. He made Brazil a kingdom in 1815. Soon, Brazil was more prosperous than Portugal. In 1820, a revolution occurred in Portugal and its leaders demanded that Joao's return to Portugal and Brazil's return to colonial status. Joao, who became

Humans have lived in Portugal since about 30,000 BC when the world was about to go through an ice age. The first Portuguese people were hunters and fishermen. In 5,000 BC farming began in Portugal and they used used stone tools to work. Bronze was introduced to Portugal around 2,000 BC. In about 700 BC Celtic tribes entered Portugal from the north part and brought iron to Portugal. By 800 BC the Phoenicians (modernly known as Lebanon) had began trading with the Portuguese because they wanted Portuguese tin to make bronze, this beginning the trading with the country. In 210 BC the Romans took over the Iberian Peninsula and with time, the south of the Iberian Peninsula became transitioned into the Roman world. However by the middle of the 3rd

From the 1500s to the mid 1940s was when countries wanted spices. Spices were very important. You could make tons of delicious food with spices. In the Europe all they had was cow. Countries wanted to trade, so they would have to travel through the Suez Canal because it was too dangerous to go through South America. The Suez Canal is between Egypt and Israel. Countries also needed rubber. Everyone needed some kind of raw material. This all led to three motives which was political, economic and cultural. Finally the Portuguese destroyed trade and then set up trading posts. However Southeast Asia felt that impact on Portuguese was the weakest. European colonization of southeast asia was influenced by many thing such as spices, raw materials,

To the surprise of these traders, they discovered that gold was used by the indigenous for barter trade. In their quest to spread Christianity, these first missionaries erected wooden crosses wherever they went. In responding to Prince Henry the navigator for a naval expeditions to expand Portugal’s fortunes, their interest shifted to finding out more about the mineral and thereby relegating Christianity. Another motive of the early Portuguese was to control and direct trade in West Africa, mostly taking it away from the influence of the Muslim merchants of the Levant and North Africa. As a means to prevent Muslim trade to expand, Portugal as a way of fostering the creation of African Christians, considered it important by bringing profit

Portuguese was interested in establishing a colony in Luanda (present-Angola) in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This was going to threaten the territorial control and economic power of states on the African coast. It was the lucrative slave trade that prompted this initiative by the Portuguese. They needed to be in proximity of the supply (Africans) so they could capture and ship the slaves more efficiently to the New World colonies thereby increasing their profits. Portugal had decided it was going to control this region economically and most importantly with its military. The military soon attacked former trading partners and native Africans in order to acquire the new captives.

Early in history, the Indian Ocean was an arena for trade between countries. Most of the people were Muslim, but Hindus, Christians, Jews, and Chinese likewise had a role in trade network. When the Portuguese stared to participate in the trade, they could have just trade like all the other counties, but they chose not to. The Portuguese soon realized that most of the ships in the Indian Ocean weren’t heavily armed and the Portuguese took advantage of this. Since the Chinese withdrew the fleet from the Indian Ocean, there was no longer a major power. The Portuguese wanted to be the new major power. Since they were the only ship with enough cannon power, they started to set up bases in East Africa, Hormuz, west coast of India, Southeast Asia, and Macao on the south east coast of China.

Portugal was not very known in the beginning.The first time that we began seeing action in places such as Portugal was during the romanization of those sections of Europe. These places were taken by the Roman armies and taken as part of the Empire. However, with the fall of the empire the islamic rule came in. The Islamic people did not take only control of Portugal but the whole section of Hispania. This included Spain and Portugal. However Soon came the Reconquista, or the reconquest. This led to the land to be taken back by the Catholics. This was embedded in Portuguese culture and affected it throughout the rest of it's development.

The first European nation to begin actively looking for a sea route to Asia was Portugal. The Portuguese had already begun exploring Africa in the early 1400s, and in 1415 they invaded northern Africa and conquered the Muslim community. This gained the Portuguese access to the African trade, which, until that time, had been dominated by the Muslims. The Portuguese began exploring the western coast of Africa, hoping to find a route to the riches of Asia by going around the southern tip of the continent. Other nations, not wanting to be left behind, began sponsoring voyages of exploration as well.

Portugal sought to colonize the South African regions in 1575. Manty African leaders succombed to the Portuguese. However, Nzinga, unlike many of the rulers at the time, was able to adapt to the changing circumstances and the shifts in power around her. Because of her own determination and her refusal to give in to the Portuguese without a strong fight, she set the stage for the next generations of powerful females who continue follow in her footsteps. She also transformed her kingdom into a fruitful commercial state that is still, to this day, on equal footing grounds with the Portuguese colonies.

Trading with the Portuguese was a crucial element to the economic success of Japan, during the mid-1500s, in consideration that the Portuguese ships acted as the “mutual, or messenger” beneficiary between Japan and China. To elaborate, due to the political tension exhibited between the countries of China and Japan in 1544, the Portuguese ships and the Chinese pirates were able to sell foreign spices to China as well as purchase their silk and gold, and then sail to harbors in the south of Japan to sell these Chinese goods along with buy Japanese silver. In addition, the Japanese were fascinated with the Portuguese’s ships, maps and navigation, and weaponry (“Will” n.p.).

Most native tribes who were living in Brazil in the 1500’s thought they were descendants from the first wave of migrants from North Asia. “At the time of European discovery, the territory of current day Brazil had as many as 2,000 nations and tribes, an estimated total population of nearly 3,000,000 Amerindians.” (“Cia world factbook”, 2016). It was discovered by a linguistic survey that there were 188 indigenous languages with 155,000 speakers around 9000 BC. “Initially Portugal had little interest in Brazil, mainly because of high profits gained through commerce with Indochina. After 1530, the Portuguese Crown devised the Hereditary Captaincies system to effectively occupy its new colony, and later took direct control of the failed captaincies”. (“ Cia world fact book”, 2016). Sugar was the most important Brazilian Colonial product until the early 18th century. Brazilian sugar at the time was stated as being high in quality, in comparison to those of other nations. However, when other countries started to produce and offer sugar at a lower price, the industry in Brazil faced a major crisis.

The Portuguese Azores archipelago (36°55’-39°45’ N, and 25°-31°15’W) comprises nine islands and several islets in the North Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 1). The islands are of volcanic origin, having arisen along sea-floor fracture zones as the Eurasian, African and North American tectonic plates rifted apart. The oldest rocks in the archipelago are found on the easternmost island, Santa Maria, and date to 8.12 million years ago (Azevedo and Ferreira, 2006). Owing to their volcanic origin, the islands of the Azores are pock-marked with craters and calderas. Soils are generally young andisols, formed under the humid climate on relatively recent lava flows, and pyroclastic deposits (Dias, 1996).

countries too. Portugal had a big role in the colonization of a lot of Africa and

As Brazil was growing its government changed many times as did its constitution. When the French invaded Portugal in 1808 the royal family fled to Brazil and for the following 14 years Rio de