PORTUGAL (HISTORY.) 



the Juke of Viseo, was put to death by the king's 

 own hand, in 1483. The expeditions of discovery 

 were conducted with ardour, and often with scien- 

 tific method. The rich profits of the trade with 

 Guinea supplied resources for new enterprises. The 

 active spirit, which was now more and more evi- 

 dently developed among the Portuguese, was quick- 

 ened by the Jews, 83,000 of whom, driven from 

 Castile, were received into Portugal on the pay- 

 ment of a capitation tax, and the most learned of 

 this nation were then to be found in Portugal. In 

 14^1, John sent two experienced men to attempt 

 to reach the East Indies by land, the commercial 

 wealth of which was the great object of his enter- 

 prises. In the same year, Diaz (q. v.) returned 

 from a voyage in which he had discovered the 

 southern cape of Africa, to which the king, fore- 

 seeing the great importance of the discovery, gave 

 the name of the cape of Good Hope. The success 

 of these expeditions, and the riches which the com- 

 merce of the newly discovered countries poured 

 into Portugal, may excuse the neglect with which 

 the proposals of Columbus, to seek new lands in 

 the west, were received at the Portuguese coast. 

 But after the happy issue of that great discoverer's 

 enterprise was known, John also sent out a fleet to 

 the west. Thence arose the dispute between Por- 

 tugal and Castile, which pope Alexander VI. finally 

 settled by the line of demarkation, drawn 100 leagues 

 west of the Azores and Cape Verd islands, and sepa- 

 rating the future conquests of the two crowns. Thus 

 was established, by Portuguese policy and energy, 

 that colonial system with which begins the modern 

 history of Europe. 



III. The Modern History of Portugal extends, 

 therefore, from 1495 to 1820, from the most flour- 

 ishing period of the country to the restoration of 

 the cortes, and of a free constitution. This period 

 embraces three epochs; 1. that of the commercial 

 grandeur of Portugal, from 1495 to the extinction 

 of the Burgundian line in 1580; 2. that of the de- 

 cline of Portugal under the dominion of Spain, 1580 

 1640; and, 3. that of the history of Portugal 

 tinder the house of Braganza, and British influence, 

 to 1820. (1.) The Golden Period of Portugal 

 (14951580). What John II. had begun with 

 such fair prospects, was continued under the fortu- 

 nate reign of Emanuel (14951521). In 1497, he 

 fitted out an expedition of four ships, under Vasco 

 da Gama (see Gama), which arrived safely at Goa; 

 and thus was the passage to India by sea laid open 

 by the Portuguese. In the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century, the great Almeida (q. v.), first Por- 

 tuguese viceroy in India, conquered Ceylon. Albu- 

 querque (q. v.) made Goa, the most important har- 

 bour in India, the capital of Portuguese India, and 

 traded to the Moluccas. Lope de Scares opened 

 a commerce with China in 1518. Emanuel ruled 

 from Babelmandeb to the straits of Malacca, and 

 the power of Portugal had now reached its height. 

 (See East India Companies, and India, division 

 Portuguese India.) On this distant stage were 

 performed great deeds of heroism ; and this is the 

 most glorious period of Portuguese history. The 

 national spirit of the people was animated with 

 youthful force and fire, and produced heroes, 

 inspired solely with a zeal for the honour and gran- 

 deur of their country. Lisbon became the most 

 important commercial city of Europe; but the 

 wealth which commerce accumulated was hardly 

 sufficient to meet the expenses of the campaigns 

 in Africa, where the arms of Emanuel were less 

 successful. The king of Congo had, indeed, 

 allowed himself to be baptized by the missionaries, 

 without whom no discovery-ships then sailed and 



sent his two sons to Portugal, to be educated, and 

 the colony on the Guinea coasts, from which all 

 other nations were excluded by the Portuguese, 

 was a source of great wealth ; but the enterprises 

 in Northern Africa were unsuccessful. The un- 

 favourable character of the country prevented a 

 rapid progress, and it is highly probable that Venice 

 and Spain, jealous of the Portuguese prosperity, 

 secretly afforded assistance to the Moorish princes. 

 The fame of Emanuel's conquests in India was no 

 indemnification for the depopulation of Portugal; 

 by the loss of so many of her most vigorous youth, 

 sent to extend or defend those conquests. In the 

 reign of John III., son of Emanuel (1521 57), the 

 Indian discoveries and commerce were still further 

 extended ; but the consequences of the rapid accu- 

 mulation of the precious metals at home, without a 

 corresponding increase of domestic industry, already 

 began to appear. The inquisition was introduced 

 in 1536, to be employed against those Jews who 

 had adopted the externals of Christianity. The 

 wise John II. had received into the kingdom a 

 great number of those whom the intolerant rigour 

 of Ferdinand and Isabella had driven from Spain ; 

 but they were still treated with so much severity, 

 that Emanuel had at first intended to extend to 

 them greater indulgence. But in the first intoxi- 

 cation of his passion for his wife, the beautiful 

 Eleonora, sister of Charles V., the old king was 

 persuaded to proceed with such rigour against the 

 Jews, as to require them to embrace Christianity, 

 under the penalty of being deprived of their children 

 and made slaves. Whether they found means to 

 prevent the execution of this cruel order, or whether 

 Emanuel feared the effects of their despair, it is 

 certain, that he allowed them twenty years for their 

 conversion. This measure led a great many of the 

 Jews to conform publicly to the Christian usages, 

 while they secretly adhered to their faith. The 

 inquisition practised the most revolting cruelties 

 on their descendants. Still more injurious in its 

 consequences than the inquisition, was the admis- 

 sion of the Jesuits into the kingdom by John III. 

 (1540), who received them into his dominions earlier 

 than any other European prince, as if he had been 

 doomed to undermine the prosperity of his kingdom. 

 The artful Jesuits gladly allowed themselves to be 

 employed as preachers of the faith in India, where 

 the Franciscans had hitherto been principally em- 

 ployed. The education of his grandson, Sebastian, 

 the heir apparent to the throne, was likewise 

 intrusted by John to the Jesuits, the worst tutors 

 of princes. They inspired the young prince with 

 that spirit of bigotry, and that fanatical ambition, 

 which led to his death. He resolved to reduce the 

 Moors in Africa (an attempt in which his powerful 

 predecessors had always failed), and persevered in 

 his projects with a wilful obstinacy, in opposition 

 to the remonstrances of his wiser counsellors. In 

 1578, having, as is supposed, lost his life in the 

 battle of Alcassar, he left his throne without an 

 heir ; and from this period Portugal sank rapidly 

 from her former prosperous condition. 



(2.) Portugal under the Dominion of Spain 

 (15801640). After the short reign of the old 

 and feeble Henry, uncle of Sebastian, Philip II. of 

 Spain, the most powerful candidate for the throne, 

 obtained possession of the kingdom by the victory 

 of Alcantara, and Portugal had the misfortune to 

 be annexed to a kingdom, which, from this time, 

 was hastening its own decline by a series of unsuc- 

 cessful wars, and by its unwise administration. 

 Philip II. introduced the censorship (December 4, 

 1 586), and overthrew four Pseudo-Sebastians. (See 

 Sebastian) England and Holland, the powerful 



