FormalandInformal Empire intheHistory of Portuguese Expansion MALYN NEWITT Portugueseclaimsto empireduringthe periodofthe Discoveries Fora longtimethere has beena problem infinding languagewhichwill adequately describe Portuguese overseasexpansionand locateitsvarious formswithintheparadigmsof politicalscience.Whatexactlydid the Portuguese Crownclaimas a result ofthetreaties ofAlcáçovasin1479and Tordesillas of1494?Precisely whatwas conferred on thePortuguese king bytheBullsRomanusPontifex (1455)andInter Caetera(1456)?Whatdid Dom Manuel understand byhisclaimto be 'Lord ofGuineaand ofthe conquest oftheNavigation andcommerce ofEthiopia, Arabia,Persiaand India'?Whatwas theEstadoda India?Andhowcantheseclaimsstandin comparison withthereality ofwhathappenedon theground orwiththe overseasenterprises ofcontemporaries, liketheVenetians andCastilians? Can they evenbecalledan'empire' atall? One approachto thisproblem has beento makea distinction between the 'formal'and the 'informal' empire- the one including the areas directly underPortuguese Crown or viceregalcontroland the other grouping together all theothermanifestations of Portuguese influence. Sometimes theterms'shadow empire'or 'unofficial empire'have been used, thoughin largelythe same way as 'informal'.Naturallyany discussionof the 'informal'empirepresupposesthatthe notionof a 'formal'empireis clearlyunderstood. However,at no timewas it ever clear,evenin themindsofcontemporaries, whatexactly constituted the formal empire. ThereasonforthiswasthatthePortuguese Crownclaimed a number ofquitedifferent types ofauthority. Onewasa sovereignty overtheseas.Following theTreaty ofTordesillas andtheestablishment oftheEstadoda India(1505),Dom Manuelclaimed tobesovereign ofthesea andtohavethesamerights thatother sovereigns claimed ontheland.Therewas,ofcourse, a vagueness abouthowmuchof thesea heclaimedtorulebuttheconcept couldbeexpandedwhenneeded toinclude theseasofhalftheworldgranted bytheTordesillas treaty. Thenthere weretheclaimstoexercise a monopoly overcertain types of trade oroverthetrade ofcertain regions. Thesearoseoutofthemonopolies established fortheInfante Dom Henriquein theearlyfifteenth century whichwereextended byJoão II to coverall thetradeofGuineaand the Congo,from which theCastilians wereexcluded bytheterms oftheTreaty of Alcáçovas.Subsequently monopolieswereestablished in the Indian 2 MALYN NEWITT Oceancovering pepper, ivory, gold,cinnamon andhorses, clovesandother commodities. Theseclaimstoa monopoly overtradeweredisembodied in thesensethattheywerenotconceptually tiedto anysovereignty over population orterritory. Third were the actual Portuguesesettlements where directroyal authority wasexercised, a hierarchy ofroyalofficials appointed andwhere territory was formally annexedtoPortugal. Theseincluded theMoroccan towns, theAtlantic Islands, Elminaanditssatellite forts inWestAfrica, the captaincies established inBrazilandAngolaandthefortalezas andcidades oftheEstadoda Indiawhere thejurisdiction oftheviceroy wasrecognized bothbytheinhabitants andbytheCrown.Theseextensions ofPortuguese territorial sovereignty wereoftenmarkedon contemporary maps with Portuguese banners. However, there wasa fourth type ofauthority. Thiswasthejurisdiction overthechurch exercised byvirtue ofthepadroadoreal.Thispowerwas conferred on thePortuguese Crownbypapal bullsandincluded theright tomakeallchurch appointments andtocollect allchurch taxesthroughout theworldeastoftheTordesillas line.1 As church jurisdiction coverednot onlymatters ofdoctrine butfamily law,inheritance, sexualpractices and manyotheraspectsof social relations, thisconferred on the kingof Portugal extensive jurisdiction overhundreds ofthousands, andeventually over millions,of people who lived far removedfromany centreof Portuguese government. Formal and informalempireinrecent historiography In 1995 AnthonyDisney made an important attemptto definethe differences between formal andinformal empire intheareacovered bythe Estadoda India.Inhisessay'Contrasting Modelsof'Empire':theEstado da IndiainSouthAsiaandEastAsiaintheSixteenth andEarlySeventeenth Centuries', he arguedthata tightly drawndefinition oftheempire which includesonlythefortalezas and cidadesunderdirectviceregal control, excludesfartoo much(though itwas implicitly also theinterpretation of nineteenth-century writers who soughtcomparisons between thePortugueseandtheBritish Empires).2 He maintained thatintheEstadoda India there weretwotypes ofsettlement, theSouthAsianmodelwhich consisted of the official settlements or fortalezaswhichcame directly underthe jurisdiction oftheviceroy, and theEast Asianmodelwheresettlements 1C. R. Boxer,The Portuguese SeaborneEmpire(London: Hutchinson,1969),pp. 20-21; and The ChurchMilitantand IberianExpansion1440-1770 (Baltimore and London:JohnsHopkins University Press,1978). In The Portugueseand thePacific,ed. byFrankDutra and João Camilo dos Santos (Santa Barbara:CentreforPortuguese Studies,University ofCalifornia, SantaBarbara,1995),pp. 26-37. EMPIRE IN THE HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE EXPANSION 3 wereofa moreinformal nature anddidnotcomeunder viceregal control. He pointedout thattheEast Asiansettlements sometimes soughtmore formal integration intotheEstadoda Indiaandpetitioned theCrownfor the appointment of a captainor the establishment of a câmara. He suggested thattheexplanation fortheemergence oftwodifferent models was partly a matter oftiming, mostoftheSouthAsiansettlements being madeearlyinthehistory oftheEstadoda Indiawhilethelessformal East Asiansettlements weremadelater, andpartly a function ofdistance - 'the viceregal capitalat Goa was locatedtoofarwesttocontrol whatwenton intheeastern portion oftheEstadoda India'.3 SanjaySubrahmanyam sawthe'informal' Portuguese settlements largely ineconomic terms andplacedthem, as didMichaelPearson, ina regional contextwheretheformalEstado da India lost itscapacityseriously to influence theeconomicorpoliticalhistory ofAsia after onlytwodecades ofexistence. Facedwiththeinability ofthePortuguese Crownto enforce itsclaimsto monopoly and sovereignty, Portuguese traders spreadoutin search of commercialopportunity and rapidlybecame just another mercantile community resembling othercommunities like the Parsees, Armenians, orJews,all ofwhomretained a distinct ethnic and religious identity andwereto be foundinall themajorportcitiesoftheEast.The Portuguese 'informal empire', therefore, wasjustanother manifestation of whatwasinfact centuries oldAsiatic trading practice.4 Otherhistorians, notably Luis Thomaz,havedescribed theEstadoda India as beingessentially a networkof commercial routeslinkingthe various port-cities, rather thana territorial empire.5 Theseinterpretations havebroadened ourunderstanding oftheactivities ofthePortuguese intheEast.In particular theyhavedrawnattention to thewaytheEstadoda Indiachanged inthecentury anda halfafter itwas founded. The grandiose plansofDom Manuel,as interpreted byAlbuquerque ,rapidlybecameunworkable and excessively costlyso thatthe imposition of Crowntrading monopolieshad to be abandonedand the Estado da India...