Portuguese

In 1492 Portugal was a tiny nation of one million people perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Cut off from trade to the eastern Mediterranean by the Venetians and Ottomans, they had turned south seeking a source for the spices and gold that appeared in the markets of North Africa. By the mid-fourteenth century they had discovered several island groups in the Atlantic that they settled and planted with sugar. Under the sponsorship and support of Prince Henry, they built up their knowledge of seafaring and continued edging their way down the coast of Africa. By 1487 they had reached the southern tip of the continent, and in ten years they reached the long sought goal of India. By accident they had discovered Brazil when blown off course and within a few decades they had a colony there collecting Brazil wood (for its dyes) and growing sugar. Portuguese navigators were very active in the further discovery of the Americas and one of their pilots, Ferdinand de Magellan, began a circumnavigation of the world in 1519 in the service of Spain. Leaving most of the New World to Spain by mutual agreement, they concentrated on their trading with the East Indies. They built trading stations at key points in Africa, India, and Malaysia, and enjoyed some very profitable years. Their monopoly on Atlantic trade to the Indies was short-lived. They fell temporarily under Spanish rule in the late sixteenth century, which opened their shipping to attack by the Protestant Dutch and the English. Both of these enemies set up trading companies to compete in the East Indies, which came to dominate the market. Gradually the Portugese lost their lead in seafaring and fell behind other nations in technology and trade. Eventually their power and influence waned to the point that they needed a British military presence to stave off conquest by Napoleonic France.

From the game's History encyclopedia.