Early Modern Portugal

Abstract

During the first decades of the Early Modern period, due to discoveries made by Portuguese explorers, Portugal acquired one of the earliest and most important European overseas empires. Over the course of three centuries, close links were established with Africa, America, and Asia in a dynamic move mediated by means of the sea. This was an epoch in which Portugal constituted a central player in great world transformations. Its dramatic opening to the wider world provoked deep changes at different levels inside the realm, from central political organization, in which the king and his court played a central role, to trade, society, and even the identity of Portugal and the self-perception of being Portuguese. Little affected by the religious break occasioned by Protestantism that shook central and northern Europe, though facing the challenge posed by the presence of a large group of Jewish descendants who were baptized forcibly in 1497, the kingdom embarked on its new course without cutting links with Europe, which some elites continued to view, until the late 18th century, as an inspiring intellectual, cultural, and artistic center. The leading role played by Portugal was marked by a hiatus between 1580 and 1640, a period during which, due to a dynastic crisis caused by the death of King Sebastian during a battle in North Africa, it was ruled by the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in an arrangement in which the country enjoyed a loose political autonomy. After 1640, with a new dynasty in charge, the kingdom faced severe difficulties, most especially until 1668. In the course of the 17th century when Portuguese overseas interests were attacked by the Dutch and the English, the center of the empire slowly moved from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. This shift in geographic emphasis together with the discovery of diamonds and gold mines in Brazil led, by the end of the 17th century, to a period of economic growth that lasted until the first half of the 18th century. During this period, the Crown profited by reinforcing its power both internally and externally. Influenced by Enlightenment doctrines that were accompanied, simultaneously and paradoxically, by use of repressive methods, the government, after the earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755, instituted deep reforms, which were were set up under the leadership of Carvalho e Melo (Marquis of Pombal), who gained the favor of the king as chief minister until 1777. The historiography on early modern Portugal is rich, particularly in works published by Portuguese authors after the 1970s. The following entries are limited to the most representative essays in each of the different topics: political history, Portuguese empire, diplomatic history, economic history, social history and welfare, cultural history, religious history, art history, and local history.