Maximum extent of Portuguese colonial possessions in the 16th century.

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Portugal & Colonies

The Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the Western European colonial empires, existing from 1415 to 1999. more...

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The conquest of Ceuta in 1415 and the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean in the early 15th century was a consequence of the kingdom's connection to the sea. The creation of a navigation school at Sagres by Henrique the Navigator allowed developments like the caravel and improved the quality of Portuguese cartography. A century later the main objective of a sea route to India was achieved and Portugal extended its possessions to a world distribution, being homeland to such explorers as Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, although the latter sailed for the Spanish crown, Portugal's oceanic rival since 1492.

Portugal's small size and population restricted the empire to a collection of small but well defended outposts along the shoreline. The height of the empire power was reached in the 16th century but the indifference of the Habsburg kings and the competition with new colonial empires like the British, French and Dutch started its long and gradual decline. After the 18th century Portugal concentrated in the colonization of Brazil and African possessions. Brazilian gold gave a new pace to the empire but the catastrophic earthquake of 1755 that seriously affected Lisbon marked the symbolic end of Portuguese influence in the international political sphere. In 1822 Brazil became independent and in 1890 the British Ultimatum ended Portuguese intentions of a similar large colony in Africa.

After World War II, Portugal (ruled by Salazar) tried to resist the decolonization and the Overseas War ensued (1961-1974). Also in 1961, after the liberation of Goa and Daman and Diu by India, Portuguese possessions in Asia were restricted to Macau (strictly a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration) and East Timor. After the Carnation Revolution of 1974, Portugal changed policy and supported the independence of its colonies. The Portuguese overseas Empire finally came to an end when Portugal handed Macau over to China in 1999 although East Timor remained a Portuguese territory de jure until its independence in 2002. The CPLP is the cultural successor of the Empire.

The beginnings of the empire (1415-1580)

The countries that we now know as Portugal and Spain spent the Middle Ages after 722 in a centuries-long struggle for land, called the Reconquista, which pitted the Christian Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms against the Islamic occupiers of the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Portuguese Reconquista culminated in 1249 with the conquest of the Algarve by Afonso III, setting the Portuguese borders which have lasted almost unchanged to this day on the Iberian Peninsula. Throughout the 15th century, the Crowns of Aragon and Portugal expanded territorially seawards (the Kingdom of Castile did not complete the conquest of the last Moorish stronghold at Granada until 1492). The Aragonese Empire, which had accomplished its Reconquista in 1266, focused on the Mediterranean Sea while the Portuguese Empire turned to the Atlantic Ocean and North Africa.