L'Empire portugais d'Asie, 1500 1700

by Sanjay Subrahmanyam

Le XVIe siècle européen fut le grand siècle ibérique. Amérique; Philippines, Afrique, Extrême-Orient: Espagnols et Portugais ont établi des liaisons maritimes régulières entre l'Europe et ces régions et jeté les bases d'une première économie mondialisée. C'est dire l'importance et même l'actualité d'une histoire de l'expansion portugaise en Asie. Devenu un classique, cette synthèse magistrale nous fait découvrir l'empire portugais d'Asie, de 1500 à 1700, à partir des rivages de l'Asie et pas seulement depuis les bords du Tage.

Genres: History, Portugal, Nonfiction, Politics, India, International Relations, Economics

518 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 30, 1992

About the author

He taught Delhi School of Economics, then EHESS (Paris), then Oxford, before becoming Holder of Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair of Indian History at UCLA which he joined in 2004.
In 2013, he became Holder of Early Modern Global History Chair at Collège de France.

Reviews

[Gabriel Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting

A very interesting history of the Portuguese Empire in Asia. The story, and the activities of the Portuguese state, as well as private actors, is much more complex than is generally perceived.

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book but too damn heavy!

[Try Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1590s, Portuguese name Diogo Veloso arrived Cambodia and was employed by Cambodian ruler Satha II (later became king Barom Rechea) in his campaign against Ayuthia. Wiith helping from Veloso, the force of three ships and one hundred twenty two men, they won against Phra Ream and took over the Srei Sonthor, the capital city. In exchange, the king permitted Veloso could build galleys and vassels and generous trade commodities. They wrote, there is in Cambodia much of oil, pitch, tow, yellow silk, gold-bearing streams, sappanwood, much wax, much ivory, much cloth of every sort, much saltpeter.

[Charles Nicholas Saenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this synthetic work, prolific Indian historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam focuses on the Portuguese empire in Asia. This decision breaks with the tendency of Portuguese imperial historians to over emphasize the later development of the Portuguese Atlantic. Indeed, he tends to skip over historical episodes on which others have written at length.

This is far from a traditional structuralist account, the author preferring a style more in keeping with histoire evenementielle. This runs in direct odds with earlier works by historians like Niels Steengaard. His sources also include a number of non-European materials (chapters 8 & 9 benefit exceptionally from this inclusion), which provides for many interesting perspectives, and great deal of reflection on the experience of Europeans living outside of Europe. The concern here, however, tends to favor the geopolitical positioning of the Portuguese vis-a-vis their Asian imperial counterparts and later encroachment from English and Dutch warships.

In European historiography there is frequent reference to a general seventeenth crisis that pervaded the experience of Europeans during this period. This trend has been tied to the fall of the Portuguese empire in Asia, an error made, not least, by Portuguese historians. Subrahmanyam, offers another explanation: the global nature of markets by this point made regional, or even global, economic hegemony impossible to maintain. Instead, he argues Portuguese traders exhibited a previosuly unseen degree of adapability and resilience that deserves further examination.

[Miguel De oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in an engaging manner, it provides crucial insights into how a sparsely populated state operated a commercial empire in Asia.

Of interest to Portuguese people who might learn of the decline of the Empire following the personal union with Spain in the late 16th century, this book deconstructs this narrative.
It argues that simple realist policy-making by local rulers caused the decline. Their alliances with Portugal's competitors, namely the Dutch and then the English, resulted in the loss of many outposts, the most flagrant example being the expulsion of the Portuguese from Japan (and loss of the silver trade) and their replacement with Dutch traders by Japanese rulers.

Finally, this book also touches upon the subject of the rampant influence Catholicism had on Portuguese (and Spanish) ventures, and their detrimental effect on policy-making. It mentions how, for example, anti-jewish persecutions undermined the capital investment core of the Empires, by forcing them to the Netherlands for example.

[Hugues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ouvrage très intéressant parce qu'il aborde le sujet avec un regard qui n'est pas celui d'un européen mais qui a une très grande connaissance de la vision des Européens. Un défaut toutefois à cette édition: l'absence d'index qui rend le livre difficilement utilisable.