Page 198 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

portuguese empire 1499

the Macao Peninsula from the Chinese. Regular trade vessels a captain and a dozen soldiers (as young as six
with Japan began in 1544 and was funneled through years old) might be the only Europeans among a crew of
Nagasaki after 1569. Ships were required to pay tolls at African and Asian slaves.
Portuguese ports.This system gave the Portuguese dom- To discharge the universal responsibility that it claimed
inance of the spice trade, the principal source of the for non-Christians, the papacy delegated a variety of
empire’s wealth. At century’s end the Estado da India Church patronage rights to the Portuguese crown.Thus,
(State of India) stretched from Japan to the Cape of the Inquisition (a Church tribunal) remained under royal
Good Hope. Importation of peppers and other spices, as authority, and all missionaries were required to obtain
well as silks and porcelains, affected a trade deficit that royal approval and to depart from Lisbon. Jealous of its
was balanced with gold bullion and the profit from the prerogatives, the Crown blocked the development of an
“country trade” between Asian lands.Although Brazilian overland route to Asia under the protection of the Habs-
sugar became the first profitable crop export from the burg ruling house of Europe and icily suggested that un-
Americas, commerce overshadowed agriculture. Amidst authorized missionaries be rerouted to Greenland. The
the daunting expenses of empire, colonies still had to mass destruction of Hindu temples in Goa in the 1540s
import foodstuffs along with manufactured goods. gave away to the policy of denouncing conversion by
A typical Portuguese vessel sailing to Goa might carry force even while introducing legal restrictions on non-
one or two women for every hundred men, and a Goa- Christian religions.
nese population of mixed heritage soon developed.Albu- When Henry the Cardinal-King (1512–1580) died,
querque, in fact, married his men to the local widows his nephew Philip II of Spain pursued an inheritance
created by his invasion. The Portuguese suffered from a claim to the Portuguese crown, which he solidified
labor shortage throughout Asia, and on their merchant through bribery and an invasion. Philip’s successors did

Ar ct i c Ocean PORTUGUESE VOYAGES
of EXPLORATION 1487–1500

AS I A
EUROPE
NORTH
AMERICA
Atlant i c China
Ocean India Pa c i f i c
A FRIC A Ocean

Pa c i f i c Ocean SOUTH Ind i an
AMERICA
Ocean
AUSTRALIA
N
Dias, 1487–1488
da Gama, 1497–1498
Cabral, 1500
0 3,000 mi
0 3,000 km