Brazilian Brief History

Author: (Brazil) Bauru Fostinho / Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: For a long time, the knowledge we learned at home or in school has said that Brazil was discovered by Pedro álvares Cabral in April 1500. This fact is one episode of Portugal's maritime expansion that began in the early 15th century. Why did a small country like Portugal, nearly 100 years before the Spaniard Columbus arrived in the Americas, take the lead in maritime expansion? The answer is not unique, and there are a series of factors at the time worth noting. First, at that time, Portugal had already become an independent and outward-looking country in Europe. Portuguese people had accumulated experience in long-distance trade during the 13th and 14th centuries, although they could not yet rival the Venetians and Genoese, but they were determined to surpass them. Perhaps, before the Portuguese took control of international trade, the Genoese had already invested in making Lisbon a huge Genoese-style trade center to expand their foreign influence. Existing trade experience was favorable for Portugal to enter the Muslim world of the Mediterranean economically, where development was measured by the increasing use of currency as a means of payment. Undoubtedly, the sea also attracted this country due to its geographical location near the Atlantic islands and the African coast. Under the technological conditions of the time, sailing from Portuguese ports or some places in southwestern Spain with favorable ocean currents was also a very important factor. However, there were also other political and historical factors in Portugal that might be more important than the above. Portugal did not escape the general crisis of Western Europe, but its political conditions to deal with this crisis were much better than those of other kingdoms. During the 15th century, Portugal was a unified country, unlike France, England, Spain, and Italy, which were involved in wars and dynastic disputes, it did not experience such intense turmoil and mutual struggles. After the 1383–1385 Revolution, a significant historical phase that consolidated the Portuguese monarchy, the Lisbon commercial bourgeoisie rebelled to contest the succession to the Portuguese throne. This was followed by a major popular uprising, which the historian Fern?o Lopes called the "Peasants' Revolt." This revolution was similar to other events in Western Europe at the time, but its outcome was different from the peasant uprisings in other countries, which were suppressed by the great landowners. When King Castela, supported by the Portuguese nobility, entered Portugal as a regent, the issue of dynastic succession and independence war were mixed. During the struggle, Jo?o I, the central figure of Portuguese independence and revolution, ascended to power as the illegitimate son of King Pedro I and the Grand Master of the Order of Aviz. Although some historians consider the 1383 Revolution a bourgeois revolution, in reality, based on the policies implemented by the Grand Master of Aviz, the revolution led to the strengthening of the monarchy and centralization. Around this Grand Master, various social classes influential in Portuguese society—aristocrats, merchants, and the emerging bourgeoisie—were reorganized. This is a fundamental point in discussing the reasons for Portugal's maritime expansion, because under the conditions of the time, once power was secured and stable conditions were established, it was the state, or more accurately, the monarchy, that could achieve great things. At the end, we should also remember that in the early 15th century, expansion was in the interest of all classes, social groups, and organizations in Portuguese society. For merchants, expansion represented good trade prospects; for the king, in an era of declining royal income, expansion was not only a good opportunity to open new sources of revenue but also a way to keep the nobles busy and raise their prestige; for the nobility and clergy, loyalty to the king or service to God could earn rewards and positions that were hard to achieve in the narrow confines of the capital; for the people, engaging in maritime adventures first meant immigration, trying to achieve a better life, and escaping the oppression of a tyrannical social system. The only ones outside this convergence of interests were agricultural entrepreneurs, for whom the outflow of domestic labor caused a labor shortage. Therefore, foreign expansion became a project that benefited everyone, or almost everyone, and spanned several centuries of national ambition. Maritime adventures were not driven solely by trade goals. Five centuries ago, there were lands on Earth that people had not yet fully understood or even recognized, and oceans that had never been crossed by any ships. These unknown regions captivated the imagination of Europeans, who dimly perceived the existence of a magical kingdom, strange peoples, and a terrestrial paradise. For example, when the American continent was discovered, Columbus once thought that deep in the land he had found might be inhabited by people with only one eye, while others had dog-like mouths. He saw three mermaids leap out of the sea, but their faces disappointed him: they were not as beautiful as people imagined. In one of his letters, he mentioned people born with tails in the direction where the sun sets. In 1487, when Afonso de Paiva and Pero da Covilh? left Portugal on a mission to find a land route to the Indian Islands, they were carrying instructions from King John II to search for the Kingdom of Prester John. The descendants of the Eastern Magi who had come to worship Jesus and the Muslim adversary Prester John had been part of the European imagination at least since the mid-12th century. The formation of this legend was based on a real material: in the eastern part of Africa, there was a Ethiopia where a black people belonging to a branch of Christianity lived. The fantasy combined with maritime adventure should not be seen as insignificant fiction, because it concealed material interests. However, there is no doubt that, especially when the outer edges of the world were increasingly being explored and practical colonial issues were brought to the fore, the latter would take precedence. P1-3