Colonial possessions of Portugal in the XIX-XX centuries. Abstract: Colonies of Portugal

The precondition for the formation of the empire was the limitedness of Portugal from all sides by the Spanish kingdoms and the impossibility of overland territorial expansion towards Europe. The great geographical discoveries of the late 15th century, the vigorous activity of the Portuguese nobility and trade elites led to the creation of the largest maritime empire for the next few centuries.

Infante Henry (Enrique) the Navigator is often referred to as the founder of the Portuguese Empire. Under his patronage, Portuguese sailors began to discover new lands, seeking to reach India by sea around Africa.

The interest of the Infanta Enrique the Navigator in geographical research, combined with the development of technologies in navigation, the desire of Portuguese merchants for goods from the countries of the East and the need to open new trade routes, together gave rise to Portuguese expansion and the great geographical discoveries. After the capture of Ceuta in 1415, the Infante Enrique began to send sea expeditions south along the western coast of Africa. The first voyages did not bring income to the treasury, but soon the ships, returning to Portugal, began to bring gold and slaves from the African coast, and, thus, interest in further voyages increased more and more. One after another followed the expeditions of Nunu Trishtan, Dinish Dias, Alvise Kadamosto and other eminent sailors, who advanced further and further southward.

However, at the time of the death of Enrique the Navigator in 1460, the Portuguese had not even crossed the equator, having reached by that time only the coast of Sierra Leone and discovered a number of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, including Cape Verde. After that, the expeditions stopped for some time, but soon they were resumed again - the king perfectly understood how important it was for Portugal to discover new lands. Soon the islands of Sao Tome and Principe were reached, the equator was passed, and in 1482-1486 Diogo Kan discovered a large section of the African coast south of the equator. At the same time, expansion continued in Morocco, and the Portuguese were actively establishing fortresses and trading posts on the Guinean coast.

In 1487, King João II sent two officers overland, Peru da Covigliana and Afonso di Paiva, in search of Presbyter John and the "land of spices." Covilianu managed to reach India, but on the way back, learning that his companion had died in Ethiopia, he went there and was detained there by order of the emperor. However, Coviglian was able to convey to his homeland a report on his journey, in which he confirmed that it is quite possible to reach India by sea, bypassing Africa.

At almost the same time, Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope, circled Africa and entered the Indian Ocean, thus finally proving that Africa does not extend to the Pole, as the ancient scientists believed. However, the sailors of the Dias flotilla refused to sail further, because of which the navigator was unable to reach India and was forced to return to Portugal.

Finally, in 1497-1499, a flotilla of four ships under the command of Vasco da Gama, circumnavigating Africa, reached the shores of India and returned home with a load of spices. The task set more than eighty years ago by Infante Enrique has been completed.

General designation of the totality of overseas territories ruled by Portugal in the 15-20 centuries.

The official term "colonial empire" in Portugal existed only in 1930-1951, the rest of the time the territories were considered as part of a single state and were designated as "Overseas Portugal" (Ultramar Português).

The formation of the Portuguese colonial empire is associated with the Portuguese navigation of the era of the great geographical discoveries and began with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. In continental Asia, the first trading posts were founded in 1501. led by Francisco de Almeida.

Most of the small coastal possessions of Portugal in West Africa, acquired in the 15th century, already in the 16th century. was lost. In Equatorial and East Africa, the Portuguese possessions were Angola, Mozambique, part of Madagascar, settlements in Kenya and Tanzania.

Portuguese India was a complex of numerous small possessions that formed at the beginning of the 16th century. (Goa, Diu, Daman, Bombay, Calicut, Cochin, Ceylon, etc.), the same was the structure of Portuguese Indonesia, which included the Moluccas, which were seceded by Portugal under the treaty in Saragossa (1512), while the Philippine Islands - to Spain. Most of them were lost in the 17th century.

The Portuguese colonies during their stay in the crown of the Spanish kings (1580-1640) were attacked by states at war with Spain. The Dutch captured most of the Portuguese territories in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. With the support of the British, the Persians conquered Hormuz (1623), and attacks on possessions in Brazil multiplied. The island of Sao Tome, the fortress of Sao Jorge da Mina (Gold Coast, modern Ghana) and others were lost. In Indonesia, only East Timor remained in Portuguese hands.

By the 18th century. overseas territories of Portugal (with the exception of Brazil) brought the Portuguese economy mainly losses. The Methuen Treaty of 1703 allowed the British to exert pressure on Portuguese foreign trade. As a result, all of Portugal's colonial income went through intermediaries to England, France, and the Netherlands.

In Brazil, from the end of the 17th century. gold was mined, since 1730 diamonds. Its role increased after the king and court moved to Brazil (1808). There were plans to relocate the capital of the empire as part of a unified state project called the "United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve."

In 1836, the import of slaves into the colonies was banned, slavery in the Portuguese possessions was finally abolished in 1869. The process, which began with the secession of Brazil in 1822, gained momentum, and during the 19th century. the colonial question acquired great urgency for Portugal.

By the end of the 19th century. Great Britain and Germany began to claim the African possessions of Portugal. Claims lost their political character and became predominantly economic. Portugal was present on the coastal strip, and the interior remained undeveloped.

An attempt to unite the African possessions of Angola and Mozambique (the so-called Pink Card) met with opposition from Great Britain, which sought to unite its northern and southern colonies in Africa. At the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. Portugal tried to oppose historical law to actual control over territories.

Portugal was forced to obey the British ultimatum of 1890. By the end of the 19th century. agreements between Portugal, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain defined the boundaries of Portuguese possessions in Africa. The active exploitation of the colonies began, in which the capital of other states, primarily Great Britain, took part.

The Portuguese Revolution of 1910 proclaimed the autonomy of the Portuguese colonies.

By the middle of the 20th century. the possessions of Portugal remained Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Goa, Daman, Diu (Portuguese India), the islands of Sao Tome and Principe, Macau, Cape Verde (modern. Cabo Verde), East Timor.

During the Second Republic (1933-1974), Portugal sought to preserve its possessions, renaming them "overseas provinces" (1951) and insisted that they were not colonies, but an inseparable part of the "multinational and multicontinental nation" of Portugal. These public sentiments were expressed in the theory of luso-tropicalism - a kind of nationalist romanticism based on the idea of the unity of European Portugal and its "overseas possessions".

In 1961, Portugal lost the possessions of Goa, Daman and Diu, annexed by India. In the early 1960s. in the African "overseas provinces" political parties arose, which led the national liberation movement, which took the form of an armed struggle.

The overwhelmingly costly colonial war in Africa by the early 1970s had brought the Portuguese economy to the brink of exhaustion. She became an important factor in the fall of the Salazar-Caetanu regime.

The democratization of the regime in Portugal after the "Revolution of the Carnations" and the overthrow of fascism (1974-1975) contributed to the liquidation of the Portuguese colonial empire. In 1975, agreements on decolonization were concluded with the leadership of the liberation movements in Africa.

In 1999, Macau ceased to exist as a Portuguese territory, transferred to the control of the PRC; in 2002, the loss of East Timor was formally recognized (independence was granted in 1975, but de jure it continued to be a Portuguese possession). Of all the Portuguese territories acquired in the course of conquests and discoveries, today only the Madeira Islands (c 1418) and the Azores (c 1427) exist outside the European continent, making up 4 of the 22 districts of Portugal.

The scale of research, trade and colonization activities that Portugal developed in the 15-20 centuries. in the vast expanse of the globe, in comparison with its human and material resources, have no analogues in history.

Portuguese sailors were the first to go in search of countries rich in gold and sea routes to India. Genoese sailors and merchants took an active part in their expeditions, striving to overtake their Venetian rivals in eastern trade. Already in 1415 the Portuguese took possession of Ceuta, which became; an important trading post and military outpost on the African mainland. Then the search for gold-bearing rivers began, which was described in the writings of Arab geographers. The Portuguese prince Enrique the Navigator rendered great assistance in organizing these expeditions. The trading companies created under his patronage enjoyed the monopoly of colonial trade in African countries, in particular the predatory trade of black slaves. The lion's share of the profits went to the prince himself, to whom the pope granted a monopoly on the import of black slaves into Europe.

By 1460, the Portuguese had discovered the Cape Verde Islands and entered the waters of the Gulf of Guinea. By that time, they had already occupied the Azores. Now the task was to go around the African continent and thus reach the coast of India. In the years 1486-1487. an expedition led by Bartolomeo Dias was organized, which reached the southern tip of Africa. The Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of the African continent, was discovered. Now there is a real opportunity to open a sea route to India.

After the expedition of Magellan in 1529, a new agreement was concluded in Saragossa and a second demarcation line-17 ° east of the Moluccas was drawn. It goes without saying that these agreements were only binding on the two signatory states.

Other Western European countries, which later embarked on the path of colonial conquests, did not reckon with them, displacing both Portugal and Spain from their spheres of domination.

Columbus's discoveries forced the Portuguese to rush to survey the last section of the route to India. Back in 1487, the secret agent Kavelian was sent, who visited Cairo, Hormuz, Calicut and the Mozambique harbor of Sofala, collecting the necessary data on the sea route from Southeast Africa to India. In the summer of 1497, a flotilla of four ships departed from Lisbon under the leadership of Vasco da Ga-ma. She followed the already known route to the Cape of Good Hope. However, in order to avoid the oncoming currents, Vasco da Gama turned from the Cape Verde Islands to the southwest and passed the coast of Brazil. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the expedition headed northeast and in early April 1498 entered the Malindi harbor. Here Vasco da Gama recruited Ahmed ibn Majid, an experienced Arab sailor, to serve as a pilot. With his help, the expedition reached the Indian city of Calicut on May 20, 1498 without much difficulty. The journey to India took over 10 months.

The Portuguese were coldly received by the local rajah. Nevertheless, Vasco da Gama managed to conclude an agreement and purchase a small batch of spices. On June 10, 1499, two ships, with less than half of the crew left on board, returned to Lisbon.

Vasco da Gama's expedition marked the beginning of the colonial conquests of Portugal on the west coast of India. Here they had to deal with the peoples of an ancient high culture, who were at the stage of developed feudalism, who were perfectly familiar with firearms. It was impossible to conquer India, Indo-China, Indonesia, China and other countries that were part of the zone "inherited" by Portugal through the partition with Spain. But the Portuguese were able to take advantage of one important advantage: they had a stronger fleet than the small feudal rulers in India, Indonesia, Indo-China. By pirate methods, capturing, plundering, exterminating the crews of the ships of Muslim merchants who held the sea trade of India in their hands before the arrival of the Europeans, the Portuguese became the masters of the South Seas and the Indian Ocean. Having achieved dominance here, they completely seize the sea communications in the Indian Ocean and around Africa.

The Portuguese ensured their dominance in the South Seas with a network of fortified naval bases in the most important strategic points. In 1510, Goa was captured in India, which became the center of the Portuguese colonial empire in the East, the seat of the Viceroy. Then Diu, Daman and Bombay (India), Hormuz (Persian Gulf), Malacca (Malay Peninsula), Macau (China), Chinese oschrov Taiwan, the Moluccas and a number of other points were captured. Relying on this network of fortresses, the Portuguese forced the small feudal rulers to give them in the form of tribute or at minimal prices all the extraction of precious spices.

The Portuguese seized enormous wealth in the East, both by piracy on the seas and by plundering the cities and feudal rulers of South Asia. Finally, they received huge profits from trade with Asian and African countries. By exporting spices from Asian countries, they usually extracted 400 percent or more of the profits. Lisbon and Goa became the largest slave markets. The Indians said about the Portuguese conquerors: "It is fortunate that the Portuguese are as few as tigers and lions, otherwise they would have exterminated the entire human race."

For a complete military seizure of the country, as the Spaniards did in America, the Portuguese in India did not have enough strength, but they systematically carried out colonial plunder in the form of monopoly appropriation and export of the most valuable products of the Eastern countries. Where possible, the Portuguese acted in exactly the same way as the Spaniards. In Brazil, the Portuguese introduced the same system of exploitation as the Spanish. The huge profits from the Portuguese colonial empires in India and Brazil went primarily to the treasury, since all the most profitable items of trade were declared a royal monopoly. The feudal nobility and nobility enriched themselves as representatives of royal power in the colonies; finally, the Catholic Church, which forcibly converted to Christianity the population of Brazil and Portutal fortifications in India, also drew significant conclusions from the Portuguese colonial empire.

However, the importance of the formation of the first transatlantic colonial empires by Spain and Portugal was reduced not only to the enrichment of these countries. The formation of these empires opened the era of colonial conquests by Europeans and created some important conditions for the formation of the world market. In Europe itself, it contributed to the strengthening of the process of so-called initial accumulation, led to a "price revolution", was a powerful impetus to the further development of capitalist relations in countries such as Holland, England, France.

The main feature of the Portuguese colonial system, the exploitation of the colonies directly by the royal power with the help of the feudal-bureaucratic state apparatus, was common to all possessions of Portugal. The supreme leadership of the colonial possessions was carried out by two state institutions of the metropolis - the Financial Council and the Council for Indian Affairs.

Local government of the colonies was built on the connection of each individual province directly with the metropolis in the absence of mutual ties between the colonies; on the unlimited power of the officials who stood at the head of the provinces as representatives of the crown, and their personal responsibility to the king, on the condition of a short-term - usually three-year - tenure in top positions. These senior positions were obtained by bribes, and at times officially went on sale.

Government in the cities was built on the model of the feudal Portuguese cities, which had the rights of self-government and privileges on the basis of the granted charters.

The royal bureaucracy in the colonies performed not only administrative and judicial functions, but also commercial ones. In the East, trade has been subject to a royal monopoly from the very beginning. All major export items - pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, silk, varnishes - were monopolized by the crown. Officials bought or collected in the form of tribute goods for the metropolis, sold the goods sent or gold, observed the observance of contracts and monopolies. The surplus in excess of what could be loaded onto the ships was destroyed. All sea transportation from Portugal to the East and back was carried out exclusively on the ships of the Royal Navy. Few goods were sent from Portugal. The payment for Indian goods was mainly money (minted in Goa) or gold from Sofala (Mozambique), exchanged for Indian fabrics.

Trade between the individual colonial ports was a monopoly granted as a privilege to the highest officials. The ships of the local population without special permits were forbidden to sail in the waters dominated by the Portuguese.

Formally, a different trade regime existed in Brazil and the Atlantic islands. Until the middle of the 17th century. navigation between them and Portugal was free for all Portuguese ships (all colonies were closed to foreigners in 1591). The royal monopoly was only the dyeing plant trade. But the arbitrariness of officials who conducted their own trade, in fact, represented a regime of trade monopolies.

The colonial policy of the Portuguese is characterized by the desire to create their own support from the local population, mainly by converting it to Catholicism.

Having settled on a small coastal territory - in fortresses, port cities, trading posts, the Portuguese created military strongholds for commercial dominance in a country that remained in the power of their former feudal rulers. But the local feudal lords had every reason to hate the Portuguese, who forced them to conclude agreements of "friendship" and the delivery of all products at fixed prices or free of charge, in the form of tribute. Any competitor to Portugal strong enough to shake its monopoly on the sea was a welcome ally for the local rulers. This was the weakness of the Portuguese colonial empire in India.

Portuguese colonies.

The colonial system that developed in the Portuguese possessions was distinguished by significant originality. In 1500, the Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvaris Cabral landed on the coast of Brazil and declared this territory the possession of the Portuguese king. In Brazil, with the exception of certain areas on the coast, there was no sedentary agricultural population; a small number of Indian tribes, which were at the stage of the tribal system, were pushed into the interior of the country. The absence of deposits of precious metals and significant human resources determined the uniqueness of the colonization of Brazil. The second important factor was the significant development of commercial capital. Organized colonization of Brazil began in 1530, and it took place in the form of economic development of coastal regions. An attempt was made to impose feudal forms of land tenure. The coast was divided into 13 capitals, the owners of which had full power. However, Portugal did not have a significant surplus population, so the settlement of the colony proceeded slowly. The absence of migrant peasants and the small number of the indigenous population made it impossible for the development of feudal forms of economy. The most successfully developed areas where a plantation system arose based on the exploitation of black slaves from Africa. Since the second half of the XVI century. the importation of African slaves is growing rapidly. In 1583, the entire colony was home to 25,000 white settlers and millions of slaves. White settlers lived mainly in the coastal zone in rather closed groups. Cross-breeding did not gain much scope here; the influence of Portuguese culture on the local population was very limited. The Portuguese language did not become the dominant language, a peculiar language of communication between the Indians and the Portuguese - "lengua zheral", arose, based on one of the local dialects and the main grammatical and lexical forms of the Portuguese language. The entire population of Brazil spoke "lengua zheral" over the next two centuries.

Colonization and the Catholic Church.

An important role in the colonization of America was played by the Catholic Church, which, in both Spanish and Portuguese possessions, became the most important link in the colonial apparatus, the exploiter of the indigenous population. The discovery and conquest of America was viewed by the papacy as a new crusade to Christianize the indigenous population. In this regard, the Spanish kings received the right to dispose of the affairs of the church in the colony, to direct missionary activities, to found churches and monasteries. The church quickly became the largest landowner. The conquistadors were well aware that in consolidating their rule over the indigenous population, Christianization was called upon to play a large role. In the first quarter of the 16th century. representatives of various monastic orders began to arrive in America: Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, later - the Jesuits, who gained great influence in La Plata and in Brazil, Groups of monks followed the detachments of the conquistadors, creating their own villages - missions; the centers of the missions were churches and houses that served as dwellings for monks. Subsequently, schools for Indian children were created in the missions, at the same time a small fortified fortress was built, where the Spanish garrison was located. Thus, the missions were both outposts of Christianization and border points of the Spanish possessions.

In the first decades of the conquest, Catholic priests, carrying out Christianization, sought to destroy not only local religious beliefs, but also to eradicate the culture of the indigenous population. An example is the Franciscan bishop Diego de Landa, who ordered the destruction of all the ancient books of the Mayan people, cultural monuments, the very historical memory of the people. Soon, however, Catholic priests began to act in other ways. Carrying out Christianization, spreading the Spanish culture and the Spanish language, they began to use elements of the local ancient religion and culture of the conquered Indian peoples. Despite the cruelty and destruction of the conquest, the Indian culture did not die, it survived and changed under the influence of Spanish culture. A new culture gradually developed based on the synthesis of Spanish and Indian elements.

Catholic missionaries were forced to contribute to this synthesis. They often erected Christian churches on the site of former Indian shrines, used some images and symbols of the previous beliefs of the indigenous population, including them in Catholic rituals and religious symbols. So, not far from the city of Mexico City on the site of a destroyed Indian temple, the Church of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe was built, which became a place of pilgrimage for the Indians. The church claimed that a miraculous appearance of the Mother of God took place at this place. Many icons and special rituals were dedicated to this event. On these icons, the Virgin Mary was depicted with the face of an Indian woman - a "dark Madonna", and in her very cult echoes of former Indian beliefs were felt.

Opening of the sea route to India, colonial seizures of the Portuguese.

The tragic fate of Columbus is largely due to the successes of the Portuguese. In 1497, Vasco da Gama's expedition was sent to explore the sea route to India around Africa. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese sailors entered the Indian Ocean and opened the mouth of the Zambezi River. Moving north along the coast of Africa, Vasco da Gama reached the Arab trading cities of Mozambique - Mombasa and Malindi. In May 1498, with the help of an Arab pilot, the squadron reached the Indian port of Calicut. The entire voyage to India lasted 10 months. Having bought a large cargo of spices for sale in Europe, the expedition set off on the return journey; it took a whole year, during the trip 2/3 of the crew died.

The success of Vasco da Gama's expedition made a huge impression in Europe. Despite heavy losses, the goal was achieved, huge opportunities for the commercial exploitation of India opened up for the Portuguese. Soon, thanks to their superiority in weapons and naval technology, they managed to oust the Arab merchants from the Indian Ocean and seize the entire maritime trade. The Portuguese became incomparably more brutal than the Arabs, exploiting the population of the coastal regions of India, and then Malacca and Indonesia. The Portuguese demanded that the Indian princelings stop all trade relations with the Arabs and expel the Arab population from their territory. They attacked all ships, both Arab and local, robbed them, brutally exterminated the crews. Albuquerque, who was first a squadron commander and then became Viceroy of India, was particularly ferocious. He believed that the Portuguese should strengthen themselves along the entire coast of the Indian Ocean and close all exits to the ocean for Arab merchants. The Albuquerque squadron smashed the defenseless cities on the southern coast of Arabia, terrifying them with their atrocities. Attempts by the Arabs to oust the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean failed. In 1509 their fleet at Diu (northern coast of India) was defeated.

In India itself, the Portuguese did not seize vast territories, but sought to seize only strongholds on the coast. They made extensive use of the rivalry of local rajas. The colonialists made alliances with some of them, built fortresses on their territory and placed their garrisons there. Gradually, the Portuguese seized into their own hands all trade relations between individual areas of the Indian Ocean coast. This trade generated huge profits. Moving further east from the coast, they mastered the transit routes of the spice trade, which were brought here from the islands of the Sunda and Moluccan archipelago. In 1511 Malacca was captured by the Portuguese, and in 1521 their trading posts arose on the Moluccas. Trade with India was declared a monopoly by the Portuguese king. Merchants who brought spices to Lisbon received up to 800% of the profit. The government artificially kept prices high. Annually, only 5-6 ships of spices were allowed to be exported from the huge colonial possessions. If the imported goods turned out to be more than necessary to maintain high prices, they were destroyed.

Having seized control of trade with India, the Portuguese stubbornly searched for the western route to this richest country. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. As part of the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions, the Florentine navigator and astronomer Amerigo Vespucci made the voyages to the shores of America. During the second voyage, the Portuguese squadron passed along the coast of Brazil, considering it an island. In 1501, Vespucci took part in an expedition that explored the coast of Brazil, and came to the conclusion that Columbus had discovered not the coast of India, but a new continent, which was named America in honor of Amerigo. In 1515, the first globe with this name appeared in Germany, followed by atlases and maps.

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