Portugal Imperialism

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Portugal was a relatively small and poor country before it emerged as an empire. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, its population was just above one million people. There were a few major factors which contributed to the expansion of the Portuguese empire. The first was that the design of the Portuguese ships and their navigation technology was very advanced for the time. The country had lots of experienced sailors who would embark on these journeys to gain riches. Over the course of the sixteenth century, an estimated 2,400 men per year traveled in hope of gaining riches. Most went to the Portuguese holdings in the East, as opposed to Brazil or Africa, as they contained spices and silk which was easier to make a quick buck on. For a period, the Portuguese had a monopoly on the spice trade, which was very lucrative. However, they did not have enough ships to effectively keep up with demand, as even at their peak they only had 300 ships, with …show more content…
It had a monopoly on parts of Africa and traded for items such as gold, slaves, and ivory. All three of those were highly valuable on the international market. Portugal spent little time and effort in Brazil prior to the 1530s. The crown knew that it would have been very costly to develop areas of these areas, and that they were uncertain long-term ventures. In the 1530s however, there were reports of French settlers encroaching on Portuguese territory in Brazil. To counteract the French, the king of Portugal gave land grants to private citizens with the instructions to colonize. The early colonies in Brazil were not successful as the hostile indigenous people did not provide a market for which to sell goods, nor a cooperative workforce. In the 1570s the colony started to become successful with the injection of sugarcane and slave African labor. Then, in the eighteenth century there was the discovery of gold and

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