istoryworld
Events relating to the portuguese empire
A Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, becomes fascinated by exploration down the coast of Africa and commissions successive voyages
The Portuguese, discovering the lush and uninhabited island of Madeira, send colonists to settle it
Portugal claims ownership of the region of Guinea, subsequently the centre of their slave trade on the west African coast
The caravel, a sailing ship developed in the Mediterranean and used down the west coast of Africa, is adapted by the Portuguese for Atlantic use
The Portuguese settlers on the Cape Verde islands are granted a monopoly on the new slave trade
The Portuguese establish a further presence on the west coast of Africa, at the mouth of the Congo river
Bartolomeu Dias, sailing for the king of Portugal, becomes the first European navigator to round the Cape of Good Hope
Pope Alexander VI draws a line through the Atlantic, dividing new discoveries between Spain (west) and Portugal (east)
In negotiations about the New World at Tordesillas, the king of Portugal insists on a new demarcation line which later brings him Brazil
Vasco da Gama reaches the southern coast of India, at Calicut, after sailing across the Indian Ocean from east Africa
Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabral, with a fleet of thirteen ships, makes landfall in Brazil
The Portuguese establish trading posts in east Africa, on the coast of Mozambique
Vasco da Gama wins a trading treaty for Portuguese merchants after bombarding the Indian port of Calicut into submission
The Portuguese set up a trading post on the east African island of Zanzibar
The Portuguese establish a presence in Sri Lanka, trading in the island's crop of cinammon
The Portuguese seize Goa and make it their colonial capital in India
The Portuguese take control of Malacca, in the Malay peninsula, as a base for trade further east
The Portuguese make treaties in the Moluccas (or Spice Islands), to trade in cloves and nutmeg
The Portuguese capture Hormuz and establish a garrison to control the Gulf of Oman
The Portuguese force the local ruler to cede to them the island of Bombay
Brazil becomes a Portuguese royal province, under the control of a governor general
The first Portuguese governor general of Brazil selects Bahia (now Salvador) as his capital
Africans, bought in the Portuguese trading posts of west Africa, are shipped across the Atlantic as slaves
The Portuguese establish a trading post on Macao, a small peninsula off the south coast of China
The Dutch gradually exclude the Portuguese from the immensely lucrative trade in cloves from the Spice Islands (or Moluccas)
