Roger Crowley - Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2024
- Portugal, a small poor nation, enjoyed a century of maritime supremacy thanks to the daring and navigational skill of its explorers-a tactical advantage no other country could match. Portugal’s discovery of a sea route to India, campaign of imperial conquest over Muslim rulers, and domination of the spice trade would forever disrupt the Mediterranean and build the first global economy.
Roger Crowley will draw on letters and eyewitness testimony to tell the story of Portugal’s rapid and breathtaking rise to power. Figures such as King Manuel ‘the Fortunate’, João II ‘the Perfect Prince’, marauding governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and explorer Vasco da Gama juggled their private ambitions and the public aims of the empire, often suffering astonishing losses in pursuit of a global fortune.
Portugal made Europe rich, developed and powerful!
I've read of of Mr. Crowley's books. He's never boring and brings all the excitement, bloodshed, and drama of his subject to life as few historians can. I can't wait for his next!
I bought and read this book. Having lived in Portugal and enamored with history of early centuries this book captivated my attention.
I'm from Portugal and I'm fascinated to hear the work you've put into putting all this information together. Because I'm also a fan of history involving our ancestors.
And whenever I find a channel that has good content on this topic, I listen.
Hug from Portugal
Hélder Ladeira
Just finished reading "Conquerors" and have read several other of Mr. Crowley's books. This presentation vividly brings to life 14th thru 16th century history, at a time when Portugal started its rise as a global power intent on trading hegemony and Muslim conquest. Mr. Crowley gives us the perspective necessary to come to grips with the events that have reverberated through so many populations, cultures, and countries. I would also recommend Peter E. Russell's "Prince Henry the Navigator: A Life". Thank you, Mr. Crowley, for some of the best narrative history available today.
Portugal in the 14th century was one of the richest countries of Europe, its just a question of studying and contabilizying monuments, cathedrals, castles, churches, trade documents, diplomatic offerings and see what Portugal had and what the other countries didnt had. Than comparing with european local wars who destroyed economy and finally the thousands of famines in Europe, that didnt exist in Iberia.
The Spanish conquered Sicily in 1282, Athens in 1311, destruction of the English fleet in 1372 (La Rochelle), destroying 48 ships, invasions of southern England in 1377, 1380-81, 1411, bases at Djerba, Tunisia, Africa, in 1380, before Portugal, conquest of the Canary Islands in 1404 (before Portugal, which reaches Africa, Ceuta in 1415) destruction of the Hanseatic League fleet in 1419, conquest of Naples, Sardinia and half of Italy in 1441, discovery of America in 1492. Portugal had only explored the west coast of Africa in the 15th century. Italy is full of Spanish universities, churches, cities and fortresses. Portugal became important in 1498, when they arrived in India, then Brazil in 1500, China in 1513. Around that time, Spain had an emperor in Germany, the Netherlands and parts of France, and the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. and the Philippines in 1520, in addition to the first circumnavigation of the world. The Pacific Ocean is half of the earth.
Its obvious that Roger Crowley is not a man of historic economy and he doesnt understands how Portugal was richer and more developed than great part of Europe. Portugal was one of the richest and most developed nations in Europe from times much before the Romans to the 19th century and that was what explains with solid evidences, like monuments, academies, cathedrals, trade and documents why Celts, Romans, Germanics Swabians and Visigoths, Arabs and Christian knights from all Europe came to live in Portugal. Especially, at the time of king Dom Dinis (1261-1325), the vision and entrepreneurial capacity allowed the royal treasury to dispose of funds to make loans to its neighboring kings, as documented in chronicles to the king of Aragon and the King of Castile. It also allowed him to be generous in the gifts he made whenever he went on diplomatic missions.
Numerous Europeans, coming from France, England, Italy, Germany and other places, came to live in Portugal, taking advantage of the dynamism that the king gave and due to the more favorable and abundant situation in Portugal.
The Iberian Peninsula was known for its vast resources that for millennia attracted Phoenicians and Greeks, but mainly Romans, Celts, Arabs and Germanic peoples, who moved to Iberia and took up residence there. Iberia grew more than the rest of the European areas. “It grew even more in the 9th-10th century, being the richest area in the 10th century and this growth is never stopped. Christian gains must be understood by this growth.” To this we must add a series of "favorable circumstances", among them their stable monarchies, with the kingdom of Castile and Aragon "very organized, composed of a warrior society with warriors who were created in the border struggle". Portugal, for its part, seeks above all “control of the Atlantic, where it has invested heavily, and allows it to conquer a position of global leadership, especially in what will later be called Brazil”.
In the distribution of the new lands, other western European kingdoms are excluded for various reasons”, as can be seen by the thousands of famines in northern Europe, by the countless migrations from northern Europe to Portuguese territory over almost every century, in the last thousands of years and, finally, by the large number of monuments, documents, churches and castles that exist in much greater numbers in the Iberian Peninsula.
The so-called Great Famine was restricted to northern Europe, including the British Isles, northern France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Germany and western Poland. In the north, crops were very often destroyed by cold weather, rain, hail and frost. The famine was limited to the south by the Alps and the Pyrenees. Famines were familiar occurrences in medieval Europe. Localized famines occurred in the Kingdom of France during the 14th century in 1304, 1305, 1310, 1315-1317 (the Great Famine), 1330-1334, 1349-1351, 1358-1360, 1371, 1374-1375, and 1390. England, there were additional famines in 1321, 1351 and 1369. Even King Edward II himself in 1315 could not get bread. But it was in Scandinavia that famines were more intense and constant, the cold climate and low light made famines prevail over time. That's why they were forced to risk their lives in stormy seas to steal from other peoples in order to survive, living with the limitations and uncertainties that war always determines. Hence the lack of monuments and constructions of the time, because only a society with resources that guarantee food, with a stable agriculture, peace and confidence in the future, can achieve this.
There is still great confusion about this, due to what was romanticized and fictionalized, or just built more recently, at the end of the 19th century but described as medieval. The truth of northern European reality has been transformed into fictional tales about princes and princesses wrapped in wealth, but the documentary and monumental truth is completely different. Furthermore, the Nazi office of falsification of historical facts, manipulated the Nordic weakness to appear as "superior to everything".
Added to this is the poverty caused by the endless wars over territorial limits that destroyed and ruined the resources of European countries, but which in Portugal no longer existed (*with rare exceptions), as Portugal was the first country in Europe to have its border limits demarcated . Hence the Lusitanian nation, with a stable present, turned to the future and looked to the unknown world, to the sea beyond and how to create and develop the technological and scientific means to get there.
There is positional and internal organization so that the countries of the peninsula have an undisputed hegemony. In Iberia, the climate was warm, mild, the region was diverse and crossed by countless rivers that irrigated the land and served as transport routes, connecting and transporting the economy of this region full of varied resources, from the sea rich in fish, to to the interior of the Iberian Peninsula and vice versa. In addition, agriculture evolved a lot, with the introduction of new Arab cultivation and irrigation techniques, hitherto unknown in Europe.
The great scientific, technical, maritime and human development that Portugal created to travel around the world and beyond, was prepared over the centuries and that is why Portugal made Europe rich and developed, changing its small, poor, closed, in the medieval era, on the continent that lead the world to this day.
D. Dinis established a centralizing policy, articulated with important economic promotion actions, such as the creation of numerous municipalities and fairs.
He ordered the exploitation of copper, silver, tin and iron mines and organized the export of surplus production to other European countries.
Foreign trade - Cereal production soon surpasses domestic consumption and Portugal becomes an exporting kingdom, establishing commercial relations with ports in Catalonia, Brittany, Flanders and England, signing the first commercial treaty with Edward II of England in 1308. Wine, olive oil, salt, salted fish and dried fruit are also exported to these ports. Even abroad, Portuguese merchants began to gain privileges: Philip IV of France donated privileges to Portuguese merchants on two occasions, in 1290 and in 1310, on this date specifically to the merchants of Harfleur.
Once the Reconquest was concluded, Dinis I of Portugal became interested in foreign trade, organizing exports to European countries. In 1293 he instituted the so-called Bolsa dos Mercadores, a maritime insurance fund for the numerous Portuguese merchants residing in the County of Flanders, who paid certain sums according to tonnage, which reverted to their benefit if necessary. Algarve wine and chestnuts were sold in Flanders and England, salt from the Lisbon, Setúbal and Aveiro regions were profitable exports to Northern Europe, as were leather and Kermes, a scarlet dye.
Internal trade - This commercial increase resulted in an increase in the number of fairs. Dinis continues his father's impulse in this field: the regions of Entre Douro e Minho, Beira and Alentejo were covered with fairs, namely tax free fairs, that is, fairs with privileges and exemptions.
To avoid dependence on neighboring states for the transport of goods, he ordered the construction of ships in the kingdom's shipyards. The country claims leadership in trade between the North Atlantic and the South and therefore, the king lays the foundations for the construction of innovative ships, which combine the characteristics of resistant Atlantic ships, with the lightness and versatility of navigability in the Mediterranean. Foreign sailors even came to combine specific knowledge of their maritime regions, with what Portuguese specialists and researchers were looking for and this is how the Genoese Manuel Pessanha is attributed the position of admiral as a privilege, founding a true Portuguese navy at the service of the Crown and the Kingdom.
He pursued relevant judicial reforms, instituted the Portuguese language as the official language of the court, created one of the first European Universities, freed the Military Orders in the national territory from foreign influences and continued to systematically increase royal centralism.
In a time of national affirmation of economic prosperity and peace led by a king with an administrative and economic vocation, it would confirm the continuation of the use of new money as opposed to old money. There is also a novelty in a silver alloy coin, with its name Tornes. This coin is a reflection of the success of the coin in France and a sign of growing trade in Europe. It was also a credibility mechanism showing that there was good silver currency in Portugal.
A monarch more devoted to economics and the arts than to war, he developed a policy of monetary stability and boosted the economy, especially agriculture. He promoted the extraction of various minerals, the creation of fairs and the development of the navy. "In these lands, countless knights from France became residents, who integrated themselves into local life. Their descendants, already assumed themselves completely as Portuguese".
During his reign, D. Dinis founded 44 villages throughout his kingdom, including the village of Atouguia. In them he built and repaired his castles. He created one of the top 3 universities in Europe, the University of Coimbra / Lisbon.
Cultivated and curious about letters and science, he would have stimulated the translation into Portuguese of many important works, among them the treatises of his grandfather Afonso X, the Wise. In this way, his Court was one of the greatest literary centers in Europe.
This one was my favorite of Crowley's books, which by the way are all great. Really enjoyable video, thank you
I am 🇵🇹
Did not know about the five wounds of Christ .
Absolutely correct !
About the precocious National Identity
For many reasons,
Not least that it's Borders have remained unchanged for the best part of a Millenium. .
Thanks!!!
Thank you
That was a fascinating presentation
Mr. Crowley was cut off at the end. Could you please upload the rest of his talk? Thanks in advance.
The Lagos slave market is a mistake, it never existed! Lagos was a slave market in Africa with more than 2.000 years!
AND IF IT WASNT THE BRITISH THE BRAZIL WAS STILL OURS
Roger, Thank you for describing our history in some detail (sometimes dubious). But 150 years to describe the duration of the longest empire in human history??? Have you been edited by the british crown? Have you forgotten that the british indic empire was a marriage donation from us? Also because we were weakened by decades of Spanish co-ruling? by the way, you never mention that the British Portuguese colaboration is always highly detrimental to us. Why? The truth is out there..
No, the collaboration became detrimental only after the Protestant Reformation in England. Not before that.
@@cg8397 really? how much did the brave knights get paid in exchange of their religious based help? int he siege of lisbon, aljubarrota?, all the way until the claims that napolean was coming? (this last one maybe more than half the portuguese tresoury at the time. our friends were always guided by political and monetary interest. never in the name of something else. who can blame them?
And ladies and gentlemen Morocco ended the existence of that empire
You are off-course high on pot right?
Portugal did not become the first global empire.
The Spanish arrived before the Portuguese, to 4 continents. Portugal only arrives first in Asia.
-The Spanish expand through Sicily, 1282, and Athens, 1311, invading southern England in 1377, 1380-81 and 1411.
-The Spanish expanded first through Africa: Djerba, Tunisia 1380 (Empire of Aragon), and the Canary Islands 1404 (although there were already Castilian settlers in 1341). Portugal arrived in Africa in 1415.
-The Spanish arrived first in America, in 1492, breaking for the first time in history the cultural unity of Europe-Asia-Africa.
During the 16th century, the Portuguese are only exploring the west coast of Africa. But even Castile also reaches the Gulf of Guinea, in Africa. The African coast is not a global trade.
-The only time when Portugal is on more continents is in 1500, when they arrive in Brazil (although Spain arrived in Brazil before), but previously they arrived in India in 1498. 1500: 4 continents. But no conquered land in Europe. While Spain has an emperor in Germany (1519), the Netherlands (1516) and parts of France (1516), as well as controlling Italy since 1441. a place of great trade with Asia.
-The world has 5 continents. In 1520, Spain crossed the Pacific Ocean for the first time, which is half of the earth, reaching the Philippines and bringing products from the 5 continents to Spain.
-In 1603, Spain discovered the Antarctic zone.
Buenas amigo, buen comentario. ¿Cuándo llegó Castilla al Golfo de Guinea?
@@don_hss Hola, gracias! Llegó al Golfo de Guinea en 1476-78, creo recordar, y luego ya en el siglo XVIII, porque hasta esa época se consideró zona de influencia portuguesa.
Incorrect! the first global Superpower was the Spanish empire, not the Portuguese!
? não , Portugal foi sim o primeiro império global e isso é consenso entre a maioria dos historiadores, mas este facto nada retira importância ao império espanhol.
Os espanhóis imitaram-nos.
It depends on what you count as global. The Portuguese got to Africa much earlier but the Spanish got to Cuba earlier.