Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World by Erik Lars Myrup

Author:Erik Lars Myrup [Myrup, Erik Lars]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Western, Spain & Portugal
ISBN: 9780807159828
Google: PTLeCQAAQBAJ
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2015-07-01T00:32:36+00:00

What then are we to make of the interaction between the Spanish and Portuguese empires during this period? More to the point, what is the significance of Luso-Spanish rivalry on the margins of Iberia’s early modern empires? Building upon the story of Raposo Tavares and the bandeirantes of colonial São Paulo (in chapter 3), the interactions between Portuguese and Spanish officials, merchants, and others in East Asia more fully demonstrate how different parts of the Iberian world were divided and united by informal networks of patronage and power that spanned the length and breadth of the early modern globe. More specifically, the connections between Macau and Manila during the period between 1580 and 1640 not only set the stage for the Portuguese Restoration, but clearly demonstrate that notions of nation and nationality were very real for both the Portuguese and the Spanish during this early period—particularly in relation to each other. From the very beginning of the Iberian Union, the connections between the Portuguese and Spanish were personal, reflecting the particular interests of individuals and groups both at home and abroad. For Portuguese merchants in Goa and Macau, the prohibition on intercolonial commerce was theoretically to their advantage, providing these merchants with a monopoly on the European side of the Asian trade. And yet, these same merchants were not above using Luso-Spanish connections to seek out new markets and trading partners in the Spanish empire. In this respect, the connections between Macau and Manila speak more generally to a broader series of connections across the early modern world. And yet, for the Portuguese, the period between 1580 and 1640 was also a time of rupture in which large portions of the Portuguese world were lost to the Dutch, either temporarily (as in parts of South America and Africa) or permanently (as in the case of much of Portuguese Asia). It goes without saying that the Iberian Union engendered a great deal of anger, as the Portuguese blamed the Spanish for their losses and sought to prevent Spanish merchants and others from making inroads into Portuguese trading relationships with other peoples. In this respect, Luso-Spanish rivalry in East Asia was more generally a phenomenon that could be found all across the Portuguese colonial world. Certainly, it was in this context that Raposo Tavares made his epic journey into the backlands of São Paulo along the region’s disputed border with Spanish America. Similarly, it was in this context that Dom João IV led the rebellion against Spain in December 1640. And returning to Asia, it was, of course, in this context that the distant Portuguese outpost of Macau remained loyal to Lisbon—notwithstanding the city’s proximity and connections to Spanish Manila.

And yet, if the distant outpost of Macau was to survive the shifting fortunes and uncertain future of the period, it would have to rely upon something more than just its connections to the rest of the Portuguese world. Although Macau’s citizens had cast their lot with Portugal’s new king, their geographic isolation made them vulnerable to other imperial powers in all sorts of ways.

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