The First Globalization: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and the Americas

Catalog description

This class surveys history of Portuguese empire in Asia, Africa, and Brazil from fifteenth to early nineteenth centuries. Portugal pioneered the European expansion in the fourteenth century, laying the groundwork for several historical phenomena that defined modernity - the formation of colonial coastal enclaves in Africa and Asia, the colonization of the Americas, and the beginning of large-scale trade across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The class analyzes the economic, religious and technological factors behind Portugal's pioneering role in European expansion. We focus on patterns of socio-cultural and religious interaction between Portuguese and native peoples in Asia, Africa, Brazil. P