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| 2. Portugal |
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(See 1481–95)| |
| 1495–1521 |
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| MANOEL I (the Great, the Fortunate), brother-in-law of John II. His reign and that of his successor mark the apogee of Portuguese power and empire, following the great discoveries (Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, 1497–98; Pedro Alvares Cabral's discovery of Brazil, 1500; Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, 1519–22 (See 1519–22). The new empire was at first ruled by men of ability and courage (Francisco de Almeida, first viceroy of the Indies, 1505; Afonso de Albuquerque, viceroy, 1507–11) and brought in large returns. Lisbon displaced Venice as the entrepôt for Asian goods and became a center of wealth and luxury. Colonial trade was a royal monopoly, and the court became a mecca for concession seekers. | 1 |
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| 1497 |
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| To facilitate a marriage alliance with the Spanish crown, Manuel ordered the EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. He wanted to eliminate Judaism, while retaining the Jews for their wealth and business acumen. On March 19 during the Passover holiday he ordered that all Jewish children age 4 to 14 be separated from their parents and baptized. As Jews naturally would not leave without their children, all tolerated forced baptism. The decree of expulsion did not have to be carried out, because now all Portuguese Jews were conversos, baptized Christians. | 2 |
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| 1490–1550 |
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| Steady importation of black slaves (between 300 and 2,000 annually from 1490 to 1530 entered the port of Lisbon); they supplemented the labor force, especially in agriculture, the manufacture of olive oil, as domestic servants in aristocratic and religious households, as seamen. By 1550 blacks constituted 10 percent of the populations of Lisbon and Evora, 3 percent of total Portuguese population. | 3 |
| On the Madeira, Cape Verde, and Azores islands, the Portuguese, following a pattern of economic organization long used by the Genoese in Sicily and Majorca, used black slave labor in the production of sugar in plantation societies that served in effect as laboratories for later plantation economies in Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America. Thus, an “American” form of slavery existed before the “discovery” of America. | 4 |
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| 1500, April 22 |
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| Pedro Alvares Cabral sighted the coast of Brazil and claimed it for the Portuguese crown (See 1500, Apr. 21). | 5 |
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| 1521–57 |
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| JOHN (João) III (the Pious), during whose reign the Inquisition (See 1479) (See The Church and the Missions) was established in Portugal (1536). | 6 |
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| 1557–78 |
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| SEBASTIAN I, the grandson of John, succeeded. Regency of his mother, Joanna of Austria, a daughter of Charles V, until 1562, followed by the regency of Cardinal Henry (Enrique), brother of John III and grand inquisitor. Sebastian himself was educated by the Jesuits and was consumed with the idea of a crusade against the infidel, which he undertook despite the contrary advice of Philip II of Spain and of the pope. | 7 |
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| 1578, Aug. 4 |
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| The BATTLE OF AL KASR AL-KABIR (Alcazar-Qivir), in which the Portuguese and their mercenary troops were completely defeated by the Moors. Sebastian, the king of Fez, and the Moorish pretender all lost their lives (battle of the three kings). | 8 |
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| 1578–80 |
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| CARDINAL HENRY, king. | 9 |
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| 1580 |
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| Death of Luis de Camões (b. 1524), greatest of Portuguese poets (The Lusiads, published 1572), whose work served as a profound commentary on Portuguese national life and imperial enterprise. | 10 |
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| 1580 |
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| A regency of five was established to govern the country on the death of Cardinal Henry. There were no less than seven claimants to the throne, of whom the most powerful was Philip II of Spain (son of Isabella, the daughter of Manoel I) and the most popular was Antonio, the prior of Crato (illegitimate son of Luis, the brother of John III). Philip's candidacy was supported by the high clergy and by part of the nobility. Antonio enjoyed the support of the townsmen and of the peasants and was backed by France. | 11 |
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| Aug. 25 |
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| The Spaniards, under the duke of Alva, invaded Portugal and defeated their opponents in the Battle of Alcántara, near Lisbon. | 12 |
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