ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been some rekindling of interest in Goa’s history, accompanied by a diversity of views on how it may best be approached and written. There was the Goa of the religious establishment, especially of the great and powerful Roman Catholic regular orders, for whom Goa was an administrative and educational centre, and significant source of both recruits and income. It was the Goa of the Portuguese crown and administration that was most clearly challenged in the crisis of the seventeenth century, for the most obvious manifestations of the crisis were political and military. Portuguese control of Goa was threatened in the seventeenth century by two powerful external forces. The authorities of Goa were hopelessly ill-equipped with the necessary naval and military resources to combat these various enemies, and received little help from Portugal despite repeated appeals and warnings from officials on the spot.
