A unique overview of Portuguese oceanic expansion between 1400 and 1800, the essays in this volume treat a wide range of subjects - economy and society, politics and institutions, cultural configurations and comparative dimensions - and radically update data and interpretations on the economic and financial trends of the Portuguese Empire. Interregional networks are analysed in a substantial way. Patterns of settlement, political configurations, ecclesiastical structures, and local powers are put in global context. Language and literature, the arts, and science and technology are revisited with refreshing and innovative approaches. The interaction between Portuguese and local people is studied in different contexts, while the entire imperial and colonial culture of the Portuguese world is looked at synthetically for the first time. In short, this book provides a broad understanding of the Portuguese Empire in its first four centuries as a factor in world history and as a major component of European expansion.

"The collection will be of interest to both general readers and students." -Shantha Hariharan, International History of Maritime History
"...this is a well-balanced book, whose articles fulfill the goals set in the introduction. Its value goes beyond the general information it provides about Portuguese expansion, offering excellent insight and an innovative framework for further research on this theme." -Catia Antunes, H-Atlantic this theme.
"The field of early modern Portuguese global history has long lacked a solid one-volume overview in English." -Timothy J. Coates, Journal of World History
"Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1800 has fulfilled the aims of the editors and writers very well. it provides a well-balanced, modern, and interdisciplinary volume that is open to a diversity of opinions and approaches. Personally, I would like to extend warm thanks to the authors and editors of this volume for their valuable work." Canadian Journal of History, Jakub Basista, Jagiellonian University-Poland

Francisco Bethencourt is Charles Boxer Professor, King's College, University of London. He is the author of O Imaginario da Magia and L'inquisition à l'époque moderne: Espagne, Portugal, Italie, XVe-XIXe siècles, and the editor of História da Expansão Portuguesa (with Kirti Chadhuri) and A Memória da Nação (with Diogo Ramda Curto). He has been Director of the National Library of Portugal and the Gulbenkian Foundation Cultural Center in Paris. Diogo Ramada Curto is Vasco da Gama Professor, European University Institute, Florence. He is the author of O Discurso Politico em Portugal, and the editor of The Jesuits as Cultural Intermediaries, La Cartografia Europea tra Primo Rinascimento e fine dell'Illuminismo (with Angelo Cattaneo), O Tempo de Vasco da Gama and A Memória da Nação (with Francisco Bethencourt). He has been a Lecturer, Reader, and Professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and a Visiting Professor at Yale and Brown Universities.