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Historical thread1385–1999

History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota

Six centuries of Portugal and its overseas empire — from the victory at Aljubarrota and the capture of Ceuta through the Iberian Union and the independence of Brazil to the Carnation Revolution and the handover of Macau in 1999.

41 events · 9 regions · Western and Central Europe, Africa, South Asia, Latin America, North America, Middle East and Egypt, Southeast Asia and Oceania, East Asia, Central and Northern Asia

The thread begins in 1385, when the victory at Aljubarrota secured Portugal’s independence from Castile and brought the House of Aviz to the throne. Allied with England from 1386, the small kingdom turned to the sea: the capture of Ceuta in 1415 opened a century of expansion into the Atlantic islands, along the coast of Africa and on to India, Brazil, the Persian Gulf, Malacca, China and Japan. Portuguese forts and trading posts stretched from Elmina and Hormuz to Macau, and settlers, missionaries and merchants carried people, plants, goods and ideas between the continents — including millions of enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic.

The death of King Sebastian at Alcácer Quibir in 1578 led to sixty years of union with Spain, during which the Dutch attacked Portuguese possessions and seized north-eastern Brazil. After the Restoration of 1640 Brazil became the heart of the empire, above all once its gold was discovered in the 1690s. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the flight of the court to Rio de Janeiro in 1807 and the Liberal Revolution of 1820 were followed by the independence of Brazil in 1822.

In the 20th century the monarchy fell (1910), and Salazar’s Estado Novo clung to the African colonies through thirteen years of colonial war. The Carnation Revolution of 1974 brought democracy and decolonisation, and the handover of Macau to China in 1999 ended almost six centuries of the Portuguese empire. The thread also includes events described in other threads: the voyages of Dias, da Gama and Cabral, the Treaty of Tordesillas, the conquests of Goa and Malacca, the first Portuguese in Japan, the transfer of the court to Brazil and the Peninsular War.

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Events

Key participants

Kingdom of PortugalEstado Novo (Portugal)Afonso de AlbuquerqueAntónio de Oliveira SalazarJohn I of PortugalJohn VI of PortugalManuel I of PortugalSpanish EmpireThird Portuguese RepublicUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandBartolomeu DiasCrown of Castile

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): History of Portugal
  2. Wikipedia (English): Portuguese Empire
  3. Wikipedia (Russian): История Португалии
  4. Wikipedia (Russian): Колонии Португалии
  5. Disney A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807. Vol. 1–2. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  6. Boxer C. R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825. — London: Hutchinson, 1969.
  7. Newitt M. A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400–1668. — London: Routledge, 2005.
  8. Russell-Wood A. J. R. The Portuguese Empire, 1415–1808: A World on the Move. — Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
  9. Birmingham D. A Concise History of Portugal. — 2nd ed. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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