Portuguese dominions in Asia

Portuguese colonial ambitions in Asia and Russian territorial expansion have led to the establishment of two impressive empires. After a brief historical presentation, the essay will show that the Portuguese dominions formed a trading empire, clearly rooted in the drive for profit, while Russian expansion was rather motivated by political reasons. It will however show that both imperial expansions also present similar patterns: the importance of economic factors (even if less visible in the rise of the Russian empire), the contribution of religion as motivator or facilitator of domination, and the establishment of local elites favouring imperialist interests. It will be finally argued that Portugal lacked the population needed to make the transition from an empire of trade to an empire of settlement in Asia, as the Russians did.

Soon after Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India (1497-1499), the Portuguese began to establish commercial routes with pepper-trading states, opening factories in several cities, supported by warships and a network of alliances with local rulers. They fought the Ottoman troops in Goa and conquered the city (1510), which became the headquarters of the Portuguese viceroy. Benefiting from its strong maritime power, Portugal was able to dominate the spice trade but significant losses to the Dutch in Asia in the 17th century triggered the decline of its overseas power. Historians often consider the Portuguese empire as ‘the first global Empire, spanning as it did the Americas, Africa and Asia’ (Brockey, 2008, p. XV). For its part, Russia has undergone a dramatic territorial expansion from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Following his coronation as ‘Tsar of All the Russias’ (1547), the Grand Prince of ...

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...e a better security and to satisfy imperialist ambitions: this continuous empire, over a contiguous geographical area, succeeded in achieving the ‘conquest after the conquest’ by gradually assimilating peripheral regions. It must however be noted that disparity is not so big as it seems: in fact, economic interests were also a significant contributor to the rise of the Russian empire, while Portuguese were sometimes driven by political motives – it is more a question of a degree than a clear-cut separation. Moreover, expansion of both empires benefited from religious factors and the establishment of local elites favouring imperialist interests. It has been finally argued that Portuguese small population led to the incapacity to send enough settlers in order to make the transition from an empire of trade to an empire of settlement, as the Russians managed to achieve.