ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the general features of Iberian colonial societies. It looks at Iberian Asia in terms of its demography, the mobility of its population and the projects leading to the effective settling of certain regions in a permanent back and forth between state intervention and free choice. The societies of Iberian origin that emerged in Asia from the sixteenth and seventeenth century obviously reflect the paths taken by the Portuguese and Spanish empires in this vast space that extends from the Cape of Good Hope to the Japanese archipelago. Portuguese imperial Asia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a “floating” state based on dominion over—though frequently this consisted only of influence or even a simple presence—a succession of port cities located between Sofala and Nagasaki. Characterised by rich and complex human relations, urban Iberian societies in Asia constituted microcosms marked by recurrent incidents of violence.
