Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825 - Hardcover

The Portuguese empire extended more than half-way around the world, from the Amazonian jungle to the Macau peninsula and the Moluccas. Both a fabulous and a dismal adventure, its history is as difficult to tell as it is worthy of being told. Boxer, an expert on Portuguese colonial expansion, makes an excellent job of it: though he spent decades in Portuguese archives, he had the advantage of being an outsider. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire spans the period from 1415 to 1825, the empire's rise and heyday, and the beginnings of its fall. The story it tells is both exhilarating (on the early voyages of discovery, on Brazilian independence), and appalling (on slavery or the Inquisition). Boxer debunks the myth that the Portuguese empire was not racist, while perhaps admitting it was relatively less so than other European colonial systems. His book includes both a chronological section and thematic chapters, helping the reader both to a historical narrative and to an analysis of the Portuguese empire's ethnic, political, social, and religious moving features. This remains the definitive account on its subject