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Holding out and holding on

A consideration of how Iberian rulers managed to retain under their authority so much of the world, despite pressure from other polities and peoples.

Reading: Elliott, ch. X.

  1. What factors permitted the Mediterranean-American Habsburg dynasty (to distinguish it from the Central European one) to retain control of so much of its territory in the second half of the seventeenth century?
  2. What was the impact on the social and cultural environments of the empire of the establishment of a Spanish Bourbon dynasty in the early eighteenth century?
  3. How was the Portuguese empire able to survive after the seizure of the throne by the duke of Braganza (as king João IV) in 1640?
  4. What was the relationship between Portuguese Asian trade and the continuing development of trade between Angola and Brazil?
  5. How did the Portuguese viceroys use alliances with East African and Asian rulers to maintain the financial viability of the Estado da India after 1640?
  6. What impact did the rise of the Marathas in the late seventeenth century have on the European position in South Asia?
  7. Why were the Portuguese able to expand their control over territory in the Zambezi region of East Africa during the second half of the seventeenth century?
  8. Why would settlements of private Portuguese outside the territory of the Estado da India continue to seek contacts with the viceregal government in Goa?
  9. What impact did the seventeenth-century Manchu-Ming conflicts have on the residents of Portuguese Macau?
  10. What factors contributed to growing Dutch and then English success in the Indian Ocean?
  11. What factors led some Portuguese to abandon Christianity in Asia?
  12. What opportunities did Portuguese find outside of the territories of the Estado da India?
  13. Why were there Christian communities in India even before the Portuguese arrived?
  14. What factors contributed to the success or failure of Christian missionary efforts in Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
  15. Why was it so difficult for Asians who converted to Christianity, learned Portuguese, and adopted Portuguese practices to gain full acceptance as Portuguese? What do these difficulties tell us about the social and cultural environments of Portuguese-governed territories in Asia?

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J. B. Owens
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Revised:  28 July 1999


URL:  http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/reading.26.html