The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A World on the Move

by A. J. R. Russell-Wood

Overview

Winner of the Dom João de Castro Prize for Portuguese History

This is the story of the first and one of the greatest colonial empires: its birth, apotheosis, and decline. By approaching the history of the Portuguese empire thematically, A. J. R. Russell-Wood is able to pursue ideas and make connections that previously have been constrained by strict chronological approaches. Using the study of movement as a focus, Russell-Wood gains unique insight into the diversity, breadth, and balance between the competing interests and priorities that characterized the Portuguese culture and its expansion spanning four centuries' events on four different continents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421441207
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	53 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

A. J. R. Russell-Wood is professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. His books include Fidalgos and Philanthropists: The Santa Casa de Misericoridia of Bahia, Society and Government in Colonial Brazil, 1500-1822, and From Colony to Nation: Essays on the Independence of Brazil.

Table of Contents

List of Maps
List of Illustrations
Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition
Acknoledgements
Introduction: Quincentennials
I. Portugal and the "Age of Discoveries"
II. Moves: Caravels, Carracks, Caravans, Canoes, and Carts
III. Flux and Reflux of People
i. Migrants and Settlers
ii. Servants of the Crown
iii. Servants of Christ
iv. Servants of Mammon
v. The Voiceless
vi. Individuals and Groups
vii. Carriers of Disease
IV. Ebb and Flow of Commodities
V. Dissemination of Flora and Fauna
VI. Transmission of Styles, Mores, and Ideas
VII. Moverment in Word and Image
Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
A Note of Two Portuguese Artists
Acknowledgements for Illustrations
Index

Editorial Reviews

The original feature is the author's concentration on people and transport as vectors of cultural exchange. He evokes a lively picture of the highly mobile merchants, missionaries and administrators who hurried back and forth across oceans and continents to keep the enterprise going.

Times Literary Supplement

Offers a variety of complimentary perspectives on the background, nature and extent of Portuguese expansion..a powerful reminder that empires are made, not born.
—Lincoln Paine, Nautical Research Journal

Enumerates Portuguese contributions to other peoples' pasts and presents, especially in the contexts of the 'ebb and flow of commodities,' the 'dissemination of flora and fauna' and the 'transmission of styles, theories and ideas.' The original feature is the author's concentration on people and transport as vectors of cultural exchange . . . He evokes a lively picture of the highly mobile merchants, missionaries and administrators who hurried back and forth across oceans and continents to keep the enterprise going.
—Times Literary Supplement

A. J. R. Russell-Wood realized that human and geographical factors contributed much to Portuguese success. Some practices were responses to the colonial experience itself. He therefore culled this historical literature, largely modern works in English including his own, to explore a rich variety of aspects of the Portuguese colonial empire . . . If geography is defined as mankind's relationship with its planet, this book is the essence of historical geography. Informative and entertaining, it is important for its new approach and insights, and because it confirms the amazing global perspective of Portugal's colonial rulers.
—Journal of Historical Geography

This is a book where every page bears witness to the author's fascination with the Portuguese colonial world and his deep love of his subject. It is the kind of book which results from a scholar's decision to open to the world the files he has accumulated in a lifetime's reading. As a result it is a sort of encyclopaedia of strange and recondite information, colourful detail, anecdotes and quotations. It is certainly a book that any student of Portuguese colonial activity would want to read and, indeed, to own.
—Mariner's Mirror

From the Publisher

This is a book where every page bears witness to the author's fascination with the Portuguese colonial world and his deep love of his subject. It is the kind of book which results from a scholar's decision to open to the world the files he has accumulated in a lifetime's reading. As a result it is a sort of encyclopaedia of strange and recondite information, colourful detail, anecdotes and quotations. It is certainly a book that any student of Portuguese colonial activity would want to read and, indeed, to own.

Mariner's Mirror

Offers a variety of complimentary perspectives on the background, nature and extent of Portuguese expansion..a powerful reminder that empires are made, not born.

Nautical Research Journal - Lincoln Paine

A. J. R. Russell-Wood realized that human and geographical factors contributed much to Portuguese success. Some practices were responses to the colonial experience itself. He therefore culled this historical literature, largely modern works in English including his own, to explore a rich variety of aspects of the Portuguese colonial empire . . . If geography is defined as mankind's relationship with its planet, this book is the essence of historical geography. Informative and entertaining, it is important for its new approach and insights, and because it confirms the amazing global perspective of Portugal's colonial rulers.

Journal of Historical Geography

Offers a variety of complimentary perspectives on the background, nature and extent of Portuguese expansion..a powerful reminder that empires are made, not born.

— Lincoln Paine

Nautical Research Journal