Portugal
-
Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba- Always have a Chair for the Queen
The Portuguese had begun colonizing Africa after their rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. The English and the French had begun exploring northeast Africa, so the Portuguese concentrated on the south, what is now Congo and Angola. Their chief aim was to provide slaves for their colony of Brazil in South America. Ndongo was ruled by a king called a Ngola, and the government was run by slaves. This was similar to the system of the janissaries in the Ottoman Empire. Slaves loyal to the royal family took high positions in the government and the military to ensure absolute loyalty. Ndongo was a trading partner of the…
-
João Rodrigues- The Interpreter
Japan was a land of mystery for westerners for many years. Marco Polo had written about it, but never been there. It was one of the destinations of Christopher Columbus as he sailed West in 1492. However, it was still very much an unknown in the 16th century, when Portuguese merchants and missionaries arrived on the coast of Japan in 1577. They had traveled to India in 1574 when Rodrigues was only 14 and served as a cabin boy. No one is exactly sure why this young man made the dangerous trip from Lisbon to the East via the Cape of Good Hope. He could have been filled with religious…
-
Treaty of Tordesillas
So if you watched the US presidential debate last night, you would have heard one of the candidates make mention that the Iran arms deal is the “worst in history”. This got me thinking. No matter what your political persuasion, I think we can all agree this is hyperbole. All of history is a very, very long time and there have been some ridiculously bad deals signed. One that comes to mind is the Treaty of Tordesillas. In the 15th century, both Spain and Portugal were two of the world’s superpowers. Both countries were sending out explorers and divvying up the New World (that’s another set of terrible treaties that…
-
The Cadaver Queen- The Tragedy of Inês de Castro
The story of Inês de Castro is a sad one. She found her prince for all the good it did her, but ended up a tragedy. Inês was born in 1320 to Pedro Fernandes de Castro, who was a powerful noble as well as the illegitimate grandson of King Sancho IV of Castile. Like many noble born girls, Inês ended up as a lady in waiting to the queen, in this case Infanta Constança of Castile. Constança was betrothed to Dom Pedro, the son and heir of King Dom Afonso IV of Portugal. As with most royal marriage, this was not a love match. However, Dom Pedro took one look…
-
The Role of Religion in Empire Building
Although Empires began and subsequently expanded for a variety of reasons, religion and culture played an important part, both as a catalyst and subsequently in the shaping of newly established Empires regardless of the initial motive for conquer. Examples of trade, security, lack of resources in the core nation, financial gain, religion and exploration demonstrate this, from various periods of their history covering expansion in similar areas, I will show how these motives affected the conquered nations as well as the settlers and associated parties involved. I have chosen to concentrate on non-contiguous Empires for my examples. Spain’s successful overthrowing of their Moorish conquerors from the eleventh century onwards gave…
