Afonso de Albuquerque summary

Find out about the life of Afonso de Albuquerque, conqueror of Goa and Melaka

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Afonso de Albuquerque, or Afonso the Great, (born 1453, Alhandra, near Lisbon—died Dec. 15, 1515, at sea, off Goa, India), Portuguese soldier, conqueror of Goa (1510) and of Melaka (1511). He gained military experience as a soldier in North Africa for 10 years but made his reputation fighting in Asia. He paved the way for Portuguese domination in Southeast Asia through efforts to gain control of all the main maritime trade routes of the East and to build permanent fortresses with settled populations. His conquests were inspired by the Crusading spirit of King John II, rather than by considerations of mercantile gain.

Portuguese India Summary

Portuguese India, name once used for those parts of India which were under Portuguese rule from 1505 to December 1961. Portuguese India consisted of several isolated tracts: (1) the territory of Goa with the capital, a considerable area in the middle of the west coast of India; (2) Damão, or Daman,

Portugal Summary

Portugal, country lying along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Once continental Europe’s greatest power, Portugal shares commonalities—geographic and cultural—with the countries of both northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Its cold, rocky northern coast and

Western colonialism Summary

Western colonialism, a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world. The age of modern colonialism began about 1500, following the European discoveries of a sea route around Africa’s southern coast (1488) and of

Asia Summary

Asia, the world’s largest and most diverse continent. It occupies the eastern four-fifths of the giant Eurasian landmass. Asia is more a geographic term than a homogeneous continent, and the use of the term to describe such a vast area always carries the potential of obscuring the enormous