Portuguese Possessions Research Articles

THE COLONIAL EXPANSION OF AFRICA AND THE FORMATION OF A NEW WORLD ORDER (the end of the XIXth – the beginning of the XXthcenturies)

The purpose of the study is to investigate the process of colonization of South Africa, namely the colonial rivalry of the world's leading powers, which gave an impulse to another major division of the world. Through the lens of geopolitical transformations of the past, to explain contemporary bipolarity. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of science, historicism, as well as the use of general scientific methods (analysis and synthesis) and special historical methods (methods of historiographic and source analysis). The scientific novelty is that through the prism of one situational colonial conflict the strategic landmarks of the leading countries of the world, which in the future will cause wars during the XXth century; lay the foundations of a modern post-bipolarity. The Conclusions. In the early 90-ies of the XIXth century the colonial division of the African continent was completed, making major adjustments to the world politics. In the history of the twentieth-century wars, the Boer War was the first, not only statistically, but also one that marked a change in the established world order. Thanks to the new colonial conquest, Germany became a leader in “world politics”, and England, on the contrary, lost its colonial dominance. The Portuguese possessions in the Sunda archipelago were divided between England and Germany. Russia was preparing for expansion in the Far East, Middle East and Central Asia. Thus, the uneven economic development of countries and regions caused the corresponding content of international relations, which focused on the formation of military-political alliances. The ideas of pacifism led to the emergence of such organizations as the Institute of International Law (1873), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (1887), and the Nobel Committee. Two peace conferences were convened in The Hague in 1899 and 1907. Unfortunately, this could no longer stop the interests of monopolies and the ambitions of politicians. The current world politics of appeasement of the Russian aggression by the leading countries, the struggle for impact on the periphery, the peoples' desire for self-determination without taking into account the experience of the historical past, unfortunately, does not add optimism to the future geopolitical transformations.

LA PUGNA HISPANO-LUSA POR EL CONTROL DE LOS MARES: DE LA EXPEDICIÓN DE CEVALLOS A LA FRUSTRADA COLONIZACIÓN DE FERNANDO POO (1776-1783)

This article addresses the study of Spanish projects to end Portuguese smuggling in the Colonia del Sacramento. Taking advantage of the conjuncture of the War of Independence of the United States, an expedition was carried out by Pedro de Cevallos with the objective of occupying Santa Catarina and the colony. The Crown decided to exchange the first for the islands of Fernando Poo and Annobon in Guinea, which in reality were not Portuguese possessions. This led to a disastrous and failed colonization project that ended with the abandonment of such settlements and a high number of human losses during that attempt.

Shipbuilding in Portuguese overseas settlements, 1500–1700

Shipbuilding was an essential element in the creation of overseas empires during the early modern period. It generated demand for raw materials, technology and manpower, and in many cases received direct support from the state. The Portuguese shipbuilding industry enjoyed various incentives from the Crown, but was always a mix between state and private enterprise. With Portugal expanding overseas, building and repairing ships in the various Portuguese possessions became an option. Initially, it was viewed critically by the metropolitan authorities, as they feared losing control. Soon, however, the logistical needs of empire meant that public and private agencies began providing shipbuilding facilities in Portugal’s overseas territories. In Brazil, the abundance of high-quality wood militated in favour of the establishment of shipyards. Wood cut there or on the Atlantic coast of Africa was also transported to metropolitan Portugal. Shipbuilding specialists were sent out to Brazil to supervise the selection of suitable wood, and soon started to operate shipyards there. Little is known about shipbuilding in the Portuguese possessions in western Africa, while more can be said about the industry on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Shipyards in India, particularly in Goa and Cochin, were developed to meet the challenges and needs of formal and informal ‘empire’, particularly regarding ship repairs. The Ribeira de Goa replicated first the Ribeira das Naus of Lisbon, but soon individual shipyards took over specific functions. Crown control, initially tight and systematic, proved difficult to maintain. Indian woods were known for their hardness and durability and were shipped to Europe to build ships for the Indian Route. Expert labourers migrated from Portugal to overseas possessions, with specialists in metallurgy joining the shipbuilders. The scope of the operation also required the recruitment of local shipbuilders. In general, and for its financial resources, Portuguese colonial shipbuilding soon relied on a cooperation of state and private initiative, much as at home.

Политика Великобритании в Венесуэле во второй половине XIX — начале XX вв.: у истоков кризиса 1902 г.

Great Britain had significant colonial possessions in Africa and Asia, but after the loss of the colonies in North America intensified its policy regarding the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the New World. Since the second half of the XVIII century England smuggled trade with Spanish America and used the British ports on the islands of the West Indies. But in the first quarter of the XIX century the situation is changing, which was caused by three factors: the growth of industrial production in the UK, the continental blockade of British goods in Europe and the emergence of independent states in the New World, which could create opportunities for expanding British exports. Argentina, Brazil and Chile become the main trading partners of England, and a politically unstable, underdeveloped Venezuela represented a difficult alternative for London. However, a convenient geographical position along the Atlantic coast, a good navigation system gave significant advantages to this territory, which was located near the British island of Trinidad and British Guiana. The discovery of gold, copper, and later oil increased the attention of England to Venezuela, which subsequently led to a territorial conflict and blockade of the Venezuelan territory by England, Germany and Italy in order to collect debts. The United States acted on the side of Venezuela in the framework of the "Monroe Doctrine". The resolution of these conflicts by the arbitration has become an important precedent in international relations.

The Terror of Decolonization: Exploring French India’s “Goonda Raj”

The colonial archives are filled with documents detailing incidents of arson, beatings, shootings, robberies and harassment that occurred along the contours of the numerous borders that separated French India from India following the departure of the British in 1947. The framing of these years as a period of terror wrought by “goondas” covered an underlying anxiety about the future of the nation-state and national citizenship at the moment of decolonization. India, though a newly independent nation-state, was in the midst of convincing an enormous body of diverse peoples, including the still separate Princely States, as well as the Portuguese possessions, that they should come together under one national flag. The notion that a group of people, ostensibly ethnic Indians, would choose, by a vote mandated by the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, to be a part of the French Union instead of merging with India was a real possibility that the Indian government took very seriously. This essay argues both France and India used a language of terror and fear and constructed the figure of the goonda as the Other of democracy to undermine the referendum and associated decolonial movements that questioned the inevitability of state-based nationalism.

O deslocamento de interesses da Índia para o Brasil durante a União Ibérica: mapas e relatos

This paper proposes the insertion of cartographic production about the Portuguese possessions into a wider context of interests and need for information experienced by the Hapsburgs during the Iberian Union (1580–1640). I focus on two documents, compiled as a result of two requests made by the monarchs who wished to learn about their domains in India and Brazil: the 1612 Livro que dá razão do Estado do Brasil, written by Captain Diogo Campos Moreno, with maps by João Teixeira Albernaz I, and the Livro das Plantas de todas as fortalezas, cidades e povoações do Estado da Índia oriental, dated 1635, by the official chronicler of the Estado da India, Antonio Bocarro, with city views usually attributed to Pedro Barreto de Resende.These texts and maps show a shift of interests from India to Brazil. They incorporate the various aspects that the authors considered relevant, interesting or representative of the Portuguese presence in these spaces. At the same time, the royal orders that gave rise to these surveys bring some elements that give specificity to each region, but emphasize the effort to standardize the information and to ensure a common administration over different areas of the empire.

Economic Processes, Ruralisation, and Ethnic Mutation. A Study on the Changing Meanings of Lusitanian Space in India, 1780-1840

The period between 1780 and 1840, which is often called the age of revolutions in the West, witnessed significant change in the Lusitanian space in India, due to radical alterations in the politico-economic activities and socio-ecclesiastical institutions. On the one hand, the commercial ventures that the Portuguese had officially maintained as their major economic activity for more than two centuries were relegated to the background or handed over to the Saraswat Brahmins of Goa and some private entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the Portuguese state in India began to focus more on agriculture as a means of sustaining itself against the backdrop of intensified threats from the British encroaching on their peripheral commerce. The agrarian policy of the Portuguese Prime Minister Marques de Pombal to acquire new cultivable territories and expand agriculture had already brought several neighbouring areas of Goa, under the Portuguese control during the period between 1763 and 1783, which were named New Conquests. This was followed by the establishment of a Department of Agriculture in 1776 to supervise cultivation and to introduce new crops, such as pepper, cotton and areca-nuts in Goa and in the newly conquered territories. At the same time that the king of Portugal fled from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro and began to rule the metropolis and its colonies from Brazil, following severe threats from Napoleonic wars, the Portuguese possessions in India—particularly in Goa—were moving towards increasing ruralisation. The Department of Agriculture even clamoured for the closure of the municipal councils of Goa, and also for the liquidation of the gaonkar system (communal ownership of land) that would facilitate distribution of land to enterprising individuals to increase production and to make Goa self-sustaining.

Antes de existir o Brasil: os portugueses na Índia entre estratégias da Coroa e táticas individuais

Este artigo propõe-se a discutir os fatores que contribuíram para a conformação das possessões portuguesas às margens do Oceano Índico, nomeadamente a construção de fortalezas ao longo da costa. Essa conformação representou uma estratégia oficial de fixação no território e de controle das rotas comerciais. Simultaneamente, no entanto, os indivíduos buscaram outras formas de enriquecimento, muitas vezes contrárias aos interesses da Coroa portuguesa. Para a análise desses dois movimentos, apoia-se na definição de estratégias e táticas proposta por Michel de Certeau.

Dezessete: a Maçonaria dividida

O artigo analisa a especificidade e peculiaridade da maçonaria pernambucana, suas divergências em relação aos pedreiros-livres flumineneses, e a participação dos mações na revolução de 1817. Fugindo ao controle do Grande Oriente Lusitano, a maçonaria de Pernambuco esteve no centro dos projetos para o novo governo da capitania, depois da vitória da insurreição. As diferenças entre as várias correntes políticas que abrigava fez com que as propostas para o novo regime pudessem variar muito, passando da radicalidade republicana à restauração do pacto dos Bragança com a capitania. Longe de ser sepatatista, o movimento pretendia preservar a autonomia local no âmbito do Estado que surgisse com o colapso da monarquia absoluta, fosse este um Império constitucional luso-brasileiro ou uma monarquia liberal na antiga América Portuguesa.

Conflicting commitments: Britain and the Portuguese possessions in India, 1847–1961

(1997). Conflicting commitments: Britain and the Portuguese possessions in India, 1847–1961. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies: Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 17-34.

The Port Wine System in the 1890s

the nineteenth century, the port wine trade was one of the most important components of the Portuguese economy.1 British merchants, trading woollens for wine, and later for products from Brazil and other Portuguese colonial possessions, had visited Portugal from at least the early fourteenth century. The beginning during the 1670s of persisting Franco-British hostilities led to radical changes in the British wine trade. Most drinkers in Great Britain, the world's principal wine-importing nation, until then had favoured wines from France at the end of the seven-

Goa's Attainment of Statehood

After New Delhi's military forces territorially integrated the former Portuguese possessions on the Indian subcontinent in December 1961, the question of the future status of Goa, Daman, and Diu remained unresolved. Despite assurances from central government leaders that the region's unique cultural integrity would be respected, the neighboring states of Maharashtra and Mysore embarked upon a campaign to absorb the tiny enclaves. After merger with Maharashtra was rejected in a 1967 opinion poll, union territory status began to assume an almost permanent, rather than its supposed temporary character. This article explores the campaign for statehood-a condition that was linked to political integration-that culminated on May 30, 1987, when Goa became India's 25th state.

The General Elections in Goa

Few election results in India have caused a greater sensation than the results of the elections held in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu in December 1963. In the first democratic elections ever held in the former Portuguese possessions, the Congress Party, which claimed to be the principal architect of liberation, was completely routed, securing only one seat in the 30-member legislative assembly, and that too from Daman rather than Goa proper. In Diu an independent candidate supported by the Praja Socialist Party was successful, while the 28 seats in Goa were shared by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak and the United Goans parties. The former, which wants immediate merger of Goa with the adjoining State of Maharashtra on the basis of linguistic affinity and which had a working alliance with the Praja Socialist Party, secured 16 seats; the United Goans Party, a Union of four Roman Catholic parties, which advocates statehood for Goa within the Indian Union, captured the remaining twelve. Both the seats allotted to the Territory in the Union Parliament were annexed by the pro-merger Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. These results were wholly unexpected. The Congress leaders, who had been confident of securing a majority and of forming the first elected government of the Territory, were rudely shaken. Barely twenty-four hours prior to the poll, K. K. Shah, then General Secretary of the Congress, claimed that his party would carry 18 seats while the remaining 12 would be equally shared by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak and the United Goans parties.' But even the victors must have been surprised at their success because the leaders of both opposition parties had, in their last minute assessments, conceded a majority to the Congress. The voters obviously had other ideas, however, and in exercising their franchise had helped set up the first non-Congress government in an Indian state since Kerala returned the Communists to power in 1957. It has also made obsolete the view that favored postponement of the decision on the future political set-up of the Territory 'until the economy of the region had stabilized and until changes consequent upon merger with India were facilitated.' By lending urgency to the merger vs. statehood issue on which emotions have run high in Goa, the elections have crystallized the opposition between the two principal components of Goan society-the Hindus and the Christians. More than a half-year later, the controversy is still raging fiercely. The elections in Goa, Daman and Diu were held under the provisions of the Government of the Union Territories Act, 1963, which envisaged a

The Future of French India

IN an address to the Indian parliament on February 11, 1949, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated: believe that for a variety of reasons it is natural and proper that all foreign possessions in India should be united with India. We propose to give effect to this policy through friendly discussions with the powers con? cerned. This statement expressed the official attitude of the Indian government toward the small French and Portuguese possessions scattered over the territory of the newly independent nation. With the emergence of India as a sovereign state within the British Gommonwealth, many Indians had assumed that France would relinquish her possessions at an early date. Nevertheless she has been rather slow in approaching the problem.1 Under present conditions these possessions contribute little to the economic welfare of their mother country. Although Pondichery is located on the east coast, it is by no means an important economic outpost of India comparable to the British crown colony of Hongkong on the coast of China. The chief reason behind the efforts of France and Portugal to retain their set? tlements in India appears to be national prestige. The bulk of the population of the settlements, however, is Indian, and the magnet of an independent India is strong.

The Indian Policy of Portugal in America, with Special Reference to the Old State of Maranhão, 1500–1755

The purpose of this study is to trace the development of Portuguese Indian policy m America from 1500 to 1755 as reflected in Indian labor legislation. Special attention will be paid to the northern, more tropical part of Portuguese America which was known during a large part of the colonial period as the State of Maranhão.The State of Maranhão must not be confused with the modern Brazilian state of the same name. Colonial Maranhão included an enormous territory, very largely Amazonian, extending from Ceará on the East to Grão Pará on the West. It was created in 1624 as a separate administrative unit of Portuguese America, and its capital was São Luiz. The other unit of the Portuguese possessions in the New World was the State of Brazil, extending south from Pernambuco, with its capital at Baía. Our interest will lie primarily in Maranhão, although the legislation on Indian labor passed before the establishment of Maranhão will be considered for background purposes.

The Portuguese Possessions in the Far East

The Portuguese Possessions in the Far East

The Portuguese Possessions in the Far East

The Portuguese Possessions in the Far East

Lope De Vega: 1562–1635

Lope Felix De Vega Carpio was born at Madrid in 1562, and died there on August 27, 1635. The poet's long life embraced the reigns of the three Philips, glorious years in Spanish history. Spaniards boasted that the sun never set upon their vast empire, which included (1580-1640) the whole of the Peninsula, the two Sicilies, the Milanese, the Low Countries, Franche-Comte, Mexico, Peru, and Portuguese possessions in Asia. Economic decline had begun but had not yet brought bankruptcy and decadence. The silver which poured in to Spain affected the economic condition of the country adversely and there were signs on every hand of extreme poverty, but outward splendour and national optimism remained. About the middle of the sixteenth century there appeared a prose masterpiece, Lazarillo de Tormes, aptly called an epic of hunger. Among types depicted in this picaresque novel, is that of an impoverished gentleman or hidalgo who comes to the capital to seek honourable employment in the church, the fleet, or the royal palace, as the formula ran. He is penniless but too proud to work. For days he has not a bite to eat, but blames the location of his lodgings for his misery.

Agreement between the United Kindgom and Portugal Respecting the Boundary between British and Portuguese Possessions on the Ruo and Shire Rivers

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Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr. F. Welwitsch in 1853–61

DR. WELWITSCH, although an Austrian by birth, occupied the position of curator of the Lisbon Botanic Garden and Museum, when he was selected, in 1851, by the King of Portugal as naturalist to an expedition for exploring the Portuguese possessions on the West Coast of Africa. Between this date and 1861, he made very large collections, chiefly of plants. Although Dr. Welwitsch died in 1872, his collections have till recently remained unedited, partly owing to a dispute as to their ownership between his Trustees and the Portuguese Government, which ended in the Court of Chancery, partly owing to the difficulty in finding a compiler and editor. This office was finally placed, by the Trustees of the British Museum, as far as the flowering plants are concerned, in the very competent hands of Mr. W. P. Hiern, who has now brought out the first part, comprising the natural orders of Dicotyledons from Ranunculaceæ to Rhizophoraceæ. The work has been one of great labour, a large number of new species and some new genera being described; and we may congratulate the systematic botanist on so important an addition to our knowledge of the flora of Tropical Africa. Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr. F. Welwitsch in 1853–61. Part i. Dicotyledons. By W. P. Hiern. Pp. xxvi + 336. (London: Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1896.)