The Portuguese as the First Maritime Power

A Portuguese ship arrives in Japan in an Edo period work of art from 1620-1640. The Portuguese sailed across the globe and were the first global maritime superpower.

In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, European naval powers undertook circumnavigation of the globe and profoundly impacted world history by jumpstarting a trend of globalization that has continued well into the twenty-first century. Portugal, though a comparatively small nation in terms of land area, took an early lead in terms of naval exploration and became the first real global superpower. By 1488 the Portuguese had rounded the southern tip of the African continent, and a mere decade later Vasco de Gama became the first European to reach India via sea (1).

Using India as a home base, the Portuguese established impressive trade routes throughout the Indian Ocean and moved further East into Southeast Asia, eventually moving northward and reaching Japan and Korea by the 1630s (1). While transporting goods, the Portuguese familiarized themselves with Asia and created highly technical maps and atlases. These maps were essential for Portuguese travel through Asian seas as they informed crews of the relevant ports and the shape of coastlines.

Ataide and Teixeira's 1630 map of Asia with a special influence on Portuguese trade routes and colonies.

Considering a map of Asia created in 1630 by Jeronimo Ataide and Joao Teixeira gives us a good perspective of Portuguese colonization and trade in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This map, with coastlines drawn by Ataide and location names inscribed by Teixeira, pays a particular focus on Portuguese colonies and trade routes. The bottom half of the map is filled with rich cartographic information and a clearly expansive knowledge of Asian shorelines. However, the top half of the map, comprised primarily of Russia and Eastern Asia, is also illustrative of Portuguese Asian colonization and influence. Mainly, we see that this part of the map is generally empty. The Portuguese were the first major global maritime power, and this nautical focus skewed the Portuguese from a literal reality to a littoral reality. The extensive knowledge of shorelines and complete lack of knowledge of what was contained within the coasts shaped Portuguese views of Asia and their role as colonizers.