Table of Contents

Preface Norman Fiering; Introduction Francisco Bethencourt and Diogo Ramada Curto translated by Neil Safier; Part I. Economics and Society: 1. The economy of the Portuguese Empire Stuart Schwartz; 2. Costs and financial trends in the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1822 Jorge Pedreira; 3. Markets and merchant communities in the Indian Ocean M. N. Pearson; 4. The economic network of Portugal's Atlantic world Luis Felipe de Alencastro translated by Marguerite I. Harrison; 5. The Portuguese in Africa John Thornton; Part II. Politics and Institutions: 6. Patterns of settlement in the Portuguese Empire John Russell-Wood; 7. Political configurations and local powers Francisco Bethencourt; 8. Ecclesiastical structures and religious action Isabel dos Guimarães Sá; Part III. The Cultural World: 9. Encounters, negotiations, and interactions Anthony Disney; 10. Portuguese imperial and colonial culture Diogo Ramada Curto; 11. Language and literature in the Portuguese Empire Luís Moura Sobral; 12. Science and technology in Portuguese navigation: an essay on the idea of experience in the sixteenth century Francisco C. Domingues translated by Neil Safier; Part IV. The Comparative Dimension: 13. Portuguese expansion in a global context Felipe Fernández-Armesto.

Promotional Information

A unique overview of Portuguese oceanic expansion between 1400 and 1800.

About the Author

Francisco Bethencourt is Charles Boxer Professor, King's College, University of London. He is the author of O Imaginario da Magia and L'inquisition ... l'epoque moderne: Espagne, Portugal, Italie, XVe-XIXe siecles, and the editor of Historia da Expansao Portuguesa (with Kirti Chadhuri), and A Memoria da Nacao (with Diogo Ramda Curto). He has been Director of the National Library of Portugal and the Gulbenkian Foundation Cultural Center in Paris. Diogo Ramada Curto is Vasco da Gama Professor, European University Institute, Florence. He is the author of O Discurso Politico em Portugal, and the editor of The Jesuits as Cultural Intermediaries, La Cartografia Europea tra Primo Rinascimento e fine dell'Illuminismo (with Angelo Cattaneo), O Tempo de Vasco da Gama, and A Memoria da Nacao (with Francisco Bethencourt). He has been a Lecturer, Reader, and Professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and a Visiting Professor at Yale and Brown Universities.

Reviews

"The collection will be of interest to both general readers and students." -Shantha Hariharan, International History of Maritime History

"...this is a well-balanced book, whose articles fulfill the goals set in the introduction. Its value goes beyond the general information it provides about Portuguese expansion, offering excellent insight and an innovative framework for further research on this theme." -Catia Antunes, H-Atlantic this theme.

"The field of early modern Portuguese global history has long lacked a solid one-volume overview in English." -Timothy J. Coates, Journal of World History

"Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1800 has fulfilled the aims of the editors and writers very well. it provides a well-balanced, modern, and interdisciplinary volume that is open to a diversity of opinions and approaches. Personally, I would like to extend warm thanks to the authors and editors of this volume for their valuable work."
Canadian Journal of History, Jakub Basista, Jagiellonian University-Poland