Portugal

Abstract

Resulting from the Iberian Reconquest, the kingdom of Portugal has maintained its independence since the 12th century, except for a brief period of incorporation into the Spanish Habsburg composite monarchy between 1580 and 1640. Portuguese, already spoken in the kingdom by the mid-12th century, became the language used in royal official documents in the late 13th century. Portuguese society and Culture have been marked since the medieval period by the geographical position of the country on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Although the reconquest of the territory of Portugal was completed by 1250, the Portuguese maintained strong links with the various polities and cultures of the rest of Iberia. By means of Atlantic navigation, the relations with the Atlantic port cities of France, England, and Flanders as well as with the Mediterranean were also strengthened after the 13th century. Renaissance Portugal was shaped by the process of overseas expansion, beginning with the conquest of the North African city of Ceuta in 1415 and the colonization of the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Azores in 1418–1420. After the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias in 1487 and the voyage of Vasco da Gama, India became the point of departure for the establishment of a maritime empire in Asia. Brazil (first visited in 1500) gained importance with the arrival of the first governor in 1549 and the establishment of a network of sugar plantations on its coastal Atlantic regions. This article provides a guide to the scholarship on the history of Portugal between 1350 and 1600, the so-called “golden” or “classical” age of Portuguese culture epitomized by the poet Luís de Camões (d. 1580). The article focuses on peninsular Portugal. The reader should keep in mind, however, the profound influence of the imperial endeavor on the evolution of a kingdom that was home to between 1.5 million (1527–1532) and 2 million (1590s) inhabitants in Europe, but was also considered the homeland of as many as 350,000 Portuguese spread throughout the globe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The long duration of the Portuguese diasporas since the 1400s can be considered a defining trait of the history of the Portuguese nation.