Introduction

Abstract

Portugal is a small nation with a great history. Mariners and missionaries from this little country were in the forefront of European expansion from the fifteenth century onwards and helped establish a colonial enterprise that in its extent and longevity has few rivals in history. Many of the monumental voyages of discovery that thrust European power and influence into exotic and unknown lands were led by courageous Portuguese sailors like Vasco da Gama and Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan), whose attempted circumnavigation of the earth ranks him “as the first navigator of ancient or modern times, and his voyage the greatest single human achievement on the sea.”¹ Under the banner of Portugal, great ecclesiastical figures such as Saint Francis Xavier (a Spaniard) and Father Manuel da Nóbrega carried European beliefs and culture to the farthest reaches of the globe. During the sixteenth century, Lisbon became one of the world’s greatest commercial centers, sharing with Seville the role of principal entrepôt for products brought from the Far East and the recently discovered American continents. Although this splendid era of expansion and commerce lasted less than a century before larger, more advanced European economies surpassed that of Portugal, the country eventually regained a measure of its past glories during the eighteenth century, an age that was certainly gilded, if not golden.

Não são diferentes as idades porque as alterem os tempos; são diferentes as idades porque as de-siquala a fortuna.

Friar Alexandre da Paixão (1662)

Portugal tem sido sempre escandalosamente protegido pela Divina Providência.

José António de Freitas (circa 1907)