The First Global Village: How Portugal Changed the World
I found Martin Page’s book a wonderful introduction to the sweep of Portuguese history, from prehistoric times to post-Salazar democracy. Published in 2002, it does not touch on EU membership and the vast transfer payments received as a result, the fruits of which were much in evidence on my recent visit there.
This small country on the edge of Europe had a dramatically outsized impact on world history by (together with their Spanish cousins) kicking off the first major epoch of globalization in the 15th-16th C.
My biggest take-aways from Page’s book were:
1) Portugal’s “national project” of reaching Southern Asia and diverting its spice production from the Arabs, Turks and Venetians, for its own benefit, was a remarkable episode in history. Page says that it started rather haphazardly and that Prince Henry the Navigator had much less to do with it than commonly believed. He was promoted to the front ranks of heroes by an English historian because he was half-English (his mother). His real role was that of a crusader (the capture of Ceuta, in Morocco) and instigator of the large-scale slave trade through a series of expeditions down Africa’s west coast. No, the heroes of Portuguese exploration were King Joao II (1455-1495) and Manuel I (1469-1521). Under their leadership, the national plan of exploration was conceived and implemented, with an occasional hiatus for crusading and piracy in the Mediterranean. New types of sailing vessels were invented, navigational instruments and techniques were improved and political structures developed (O Estado da India…the first Viceroyalty). By 1531 Portugal had extended its trading network down and around Africa, to India, Indonesia, China and Japan, not to mention Brazil. It dominated the global spice trade and more.
2) Portugal has a history of diversity and tolerance that, with some tragic interruptions, stands in stark contrast with its Spanish neighbor.
3) Page goes out of his way to deflate the image of the (he says) self-promoting Marquis de Pombal as being savior of his nation in the wake of the tragic 1775 earthquake to rather more of a tyrannical dictator who, while he did much to organize and accelerate the recovery efforts, did more to promote his own political ends, at great cost of lives, liberty and treasure.
4) Portugal had two shots at glory. The first was the aforementioned period of near monopoly of the spice trade that followed its pioneering of the sea route to the Indies in the 16th C. The second was the discovery of gold (and diamonds) in Brazil in the 18th C. Neither catapulted the country to long-term prosperity. By hook or crook, the Dutch, English and French overpowered the crown jewels of its Asian colonial empire, while the Napoleonic wars and their consequences scuttled the second chance and left the country more a less a poor backwater.
5) Portugal’s transition from monarchy to stable democracy was long and tortuous, starting with the revolution of 1910, passing through a tumultuous series of republican governments, then a long dictatorship under Salazar that lasted from the 1930s until 1973.
