ABSTRACT
Historians have been notoriously fickle in their interpretations of Portuguese overseas expansion. It is as though they are observing the behaviour of some animal without being able to agree to what species it belongs. It is often difficult to know whether one is looking at an ‘empire’ in the sense that Britain had an empire; a diaspora of peoples, perhaps like the diaspora of the Chinese in South-East Asia; a medieval crusade or reconquista; a gold rush; an early experiment in monopoly capitalism; or a more primitive exercise in capital accumulation through plunder. Was Portuguese expansion one of the most impressive manifestations of the Renaissance spirit or a sinister demonstration of the power of modern weaponry? Did the Tordesillas agreement of 1494, and Portugal’s claim to be sovereign of the seas, introduce wholly new concepts into interstate relations? Above all, were the discoveries of Brazil and the sea route from Europe to India, all within the space of two years, mere incidents in the continuous histories of the Asian, African and American peoples or did they constitute a profound revolution that, more than almost any other development of the time, ushered in the modern world?
