Kingdom of Portugal (1139–1910)

Kingdom of Portugal Reino de Portugal
1139–1910
Flag Coat of arms
Capital	Lisbon
Official languages	Portuguese Latin
Dominant mode of production	Feudalism
Government	Monarchy

The Kingdom of Portugal was a kingdom located on the Iberian Peninsula. It was the first European power to begin colonizing Africa.

A map depicting Portugal's colonial empire in the 1400s and 1500s.

Colonialism

Early exploration of Africa

In 1415, Prince Enrique, son of King João, fought against the Arabs and captured their fortress of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast. In 1434, Enrique sent Gil Eanes on an expedition to Cape Bojador (modern-day Western Sahara). In 1441, Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão sailed to Cabo Blanco (Mauritania) and brought back gold and ten slaves. The next year, the Pope gave Portugal the authority to rule all lands it could conquer between Cape Bojador and India. In 1445, João Fernandes landed in Rio do Ouro (Western Sahara) and explored eastward into the Sahara for seven months. Dinis Dias reached the mouth of the Senegal River and Cabo Verde in 1446. Lancerot reached the Gambia River in 1448. Around the same time, Portugal also commissioned the Italian explorers Alvise Cadamosto and Antoniotto Usodimare to explore the Senegal and Gambia rivers. Diogo Gomes reached Sierra Leone in 1460, and Pedro de Sintra reached modern-day Liberia in 1462.

King Afonso V gave Fernão Gomes exclusive trading rights with Africa from 1469 to 1474 provided that he explored 300 new miles of coastline every year. During this period, Portugal reached the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) and São Tomé and Príncipe circa 1471. Diogo Cão sailed up the Congo River in 1482 and again in 1485, kidnapping some Africans during the second voyage and bringing them to Portugal. In 1486, João Afonso d'Avaro reached Benin. In 1487, Pêro d'Évora and Gonçales Eanes sailed to Senegal and explored inland to reach Timbuktu.

The Portuguese established sugarcane plantations on São Tomé and Príncipe beginning in 1493, on which they would use slave labor from enslaved people shipped from mainland Africa, acquired via states with whom the Portuguese were trading such as the Kingdom of Benin and the Kingdom of Kongo. Over time, as demand for slave labor increased, traders from São Tomé and Príncipe started conducting their own expeditions to enslave people, eventually moving further south to Ndongo to continue their slaving expeditions as relations with the Kingdom of Kongo worsened. As demand for slave labor on plantations in the Americas rose, São Tomé and Príncipe served as a hub for shipping enslaved people across the Atlantic. Enslaved people frequently escaped, establishing maroon communities in mountainous forests, from which they would attack the plantations and the town of São Tomé. A major slave uprising led by a man named Amador occurred in July 1595.

As the Portuguese moved south, they attempted to establish a slave trade relationship with the Ndongo, located in what is present-day Angola. From 1575 to 1663, Portugal, in its pursuit of land and slaves, was in constant war with the Kingdom of Ndongo. At first, the Portuguese took control of coastal areas, which they used as slave trading hubs and bases from which to conduct slaving raids further inland. The Kingdom of Ndongo fell in 1671 and was brought under colonial rule of the Portuguese.