Portuguese Empire in the Americas

Lori HealyHIST 140 Sec 71258November 23, 2010

Chapter 8- Antonio de Gouveia Brazil• Period: Sixteenth century

(1528-c. 1580)• Location: Azores Islands• Group: Brazilian• Gender: Male• Occupation: Azorean priest

• General History- Gouveia was born in 1528 to a Christian family in Terceira. He went to Lisbon where he became an Azorean priest.

• He did not follow the structure of his time and moved freely about the Atlantic Ocean.

• He studied unusual things like astrology to alchemy and also practiced medicine. People thought he knew the key to invisibility.

• He teamed up with Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque and began searching for silver and gold. He captured Indians for the slave market.

Chapter 14- Catarina de Monte Sinay Brazil• Period: 1680-1758• Location: Bahia, Brazil• Group: Covent of Santa

Clara do Desterro• Gender: Female• Occupation: Nun and

entrepreneur

• General History- Catarina de Telles Barretto became Madre Catarina de Monte Sinay in 1696 in Bahia, Brazil.

• To Catarina becoming a nun signified her spiritual wedding, she dedicated her life to being a “bride of Christ”.

• Catarina’s fortune had gradually accumulated over the years as the product of various enterprises.

• She had a business of preparing and selling sweets. She maintained twelve slaves for her business. She made money also by selling a slave.

• Much of the money she gained came from her rental of houses.

• Catarina shared the story of her successful and wealthy life while on her death bed in 1758.

Chapter 15- Francisca Brazil

• Period: 1700-1750• Location: Belem do Para,

Brazil• Group: Native Indian• Gender: Female• Occupation: Indian Slave

• General History- Francisca was captured by the Manao tribe as a young girl. She then became a slave for the chief’s daughter when she was married to a captain from Belem. However, she was not given a certificate of legitimate enslavement.

• In 1739 Francisca petitioned the Portuguese colonial authorities for her freedom.

• She was first declared free, but then the decision was later overturned.

• Francisca’s intelligence, resourcefulness, vitality, determination, and love of life was vary rarely acknowledged.

• People like Francisca were short-lived, shamelessly exploited, and quickly forgotten.

• She was a survivor and a women who made her mark on several people’s lives.

History of Portugal• Portugal is a European

and Atlantic nation. • It ascended into the

status of the world in the 15th and 16th centuries during Europe’s “Age of Discovery.”

• It built up a massive empire including properties in South America, Africa, Asia and Australasia.

Portuguese Empire• The Portuguese Empire is also

known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire.

• It was the first global empire in history.

• It was also the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, lasting almost six centuries.

• Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419.

• They explored the coasts and islands of East Asia establishing forts and factories as they went.

• By creating a commercial network it brought great wealth to Portugal.

Red is the actual Portuguese Empire possessions.

Decline of Portugal Empire• Over the next two centuries Portugal gradually lost much of

its wealth and status as the Dutch, English and French took share of the spice and slave trades.

• The country was weakened due to two battles and a earthquake in 1755.

• Between 1580 and 1640 Portugal became junior partner to Spain in the union of the two countries’ crowns.

• Portugal colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers. Portugal was unable to effectively defend its overstretched network of trading posts, and the empire began a long and gradual decline.

• Significant loses to the empire during the 17th century brought an end to the Portuguese trade monopoly in the Indian Ocean.

• After war the government immediately changed policy and recognized the independence of all its colonies, which marked the end of the Portuguese Empire.

• About two-million Portuguese left Europe to live in Brazil and the United States from the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s.

Present day Portugal