Exhibition

Program

Learning and Education

Catalog

Press

360° Panoramas

Visitor Information

Imprint

German Version

Portuguese Version

 

 

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Prologue | Portugal in the Middle Ages | Conditions at the Start | Voyages of Discovery

Cartography and Nautics | New Worlds – Old Empires | Portugal Overseas | Art and Curiosity Cabinets

Portugal in the 16th Century | International Conflicts | Foreign Images

 

 

10. International Conflicts

Military force was a central component during the age of discovery. Portugal was often only able to assert its claim to power overseas by means of soldiers and open warfare. From the beginning, explorations along the coast of Africa were used to capture slaves.

 

By the 16th century ships from numerous European countries began calling at the American coastal settlements. This not infrequently led to military clashes. Pirates and buccaneers threatened the merchant fleets as well. In the 17th century other European powers, in particular the newly independent Netherlands, began deliberately attacking many different bases of the Portuguese overseas empire. France and England also established themselves as colonial powers. Historians like Charles R. Boxer term these worldwide conflicts in reality as the First World War. Local allies regularly helped to assert the colonial powers’ own interests in foreign territories.