The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A World on the Move

If you're into naval/empire history, this book will grab hold of you and not let you put it down. Though not completely rare, serious writing on the Portuguese empire is often higher billed by the then Spanish contemporaries or simply briefly mentioned, usually in reference to slavery and disease. This work helps to not only counterbalance this tendency but to also illumine exactly what, when, and where the Portuguese were developing during the early days to the end of the empire.Very well written and very thought provoking. Again, if you're into ships, naval history, and a people who touched mostly all others, this is one serious book to consider.ALSO, I recommend Eugene Mendonsa's "West Africa" for a slightly more detailed description of the Portuguse presence in West Africa (1440s-1637).

One sure thing about the author is the deep knowledge he has on the subject. But the way the book is presented, developing a subject -like the chapter about flora and fauna- makes the reading a little difficult since you see lots of names and short stories related to that. I was expecting a chronological story, my fault then.

I'll start by saying that the author has a great knowledge and passion for the subject. This is a plus, however it is written in a very dry academic fashion with lists of names, places, times required to reach those places at the time and goods shipped between those places. I lost interest very quickly.Although all of these facts are certainly important, I really prefer history written in a "story" format where it is either chronologically written or covers different events or geographic places chapter by chapter, and it written not in a textbook academic fashion but is told in high level, but colorful language. Ideally, I was looking for a book that read like fiction but told the fascinating history of the Portuguese Empire.If you're looking for a book with the academic facts of where the empire it was, what goods were traded, and lists of the flora, fauna, and people's located in those areas, then you will be very happy with this book. However, if you're looking for an interesting chronological history of the Portuguese Empire, I would recommend something else.

This is a very good book that in very detailed manner explores the Portuguese empire. Different from other books on the same subject it does its analysis based on themes, like lands explored, people on the move, etc.

There is no doubt that Russell-Wood produced a very fine book in terms of research and patient gathering of an enormous amount of facts about the Portuguese realms in South America, Africa and Asia over nearly 400 years. I have awarded it only three stars because the lists of products traded and food crops introduced, and the hundreds of small biographies of individuals who inhabited the Portuguese empire over the centuries make it difficult reading. You have to concentrate on the main thesis, which he has proven more than adequately. That is that the world of Portuguese interest, conquest, and trade stretched around the globe. Everything was interconnected. Most scholars, he rightly points out, concentrate on one part of that world---Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, India, Malacca, China and Japan or the Moluccas. But, people, trade, the military, the ecclesiastics, and government officials were interchangeable among all these places. It was a world of movement as his subtitle suggests. In the first wave of exploration, Portuguese reached Tibet, Bolivia, many Pacific islands, and the heart of Africa as individual travelers, not conquerors. It caused a veritable explosion in knowledge and interest in the world outside Europe. This constant movement and the appearance of the same characters in widely-separated parts of the world is the major theme. There is a great selection of pictures and lithographs and a fair few maps to boot. If you are a scholar or would-be student of Portuguese history in English, this would be a five star book for sure. If you want to familiarize yourself with a general outline of the Portuguese overseas activity of those centuries, perhaps Charles Boxer's "The Portuguese Seaborne Empire" is a better choice.

Finally someone who selflessly writing real history. Great people, one of the largest and longest Western Empires. Recommend the study.

Very factual however extremely boring. Don't bother

Very good book, as I expected.

good

Definitely not the book if you are only looking for some general information about what was once the Portuguese Empire. For that purpose you should start with some wider and better structured Portuguese History reading. This book goes too deep into facts and provides the reader with astonishing erudition concerning all possible names and dates and events and everything else you can imagine. There is structure, no doubt about it, but filled with lots and lots of information, with dates and names that jump around without chronological order. It's a magnificent piece of work if you already have a solid knowledge about Portuguese History, but very confusing if you are History blank.I would recommend this book for people who have a good general historical background, even better if Portuguese History is included. For the curious, this book will probably be just a drag.