Portugal: Did you mean...?

In the 13th century, astonishing quantities of spices and silk passed from the Far East to Europe. Exact amounts are not known, but spice popularity in both cuisine and medicine reached its historical peak during the Middle Ages in Europe...

The first plantations in the Americas of sugar cane, cocoa, tobacco, and cotton were maintained and harvested by African slaves controlled by European masters. When African slavery was largely abolished in the mid-1800s, the center of plantation...

As the 15th century ended, Europeans were still mostly in the dark about the Eastern world. Early travelers like Marco Polo had given the West tidbits of information, but these accounts were too highly colored and fragmentary to provide a...

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A map illustrating the geopolitical situation in Africa after World War I - the continent still under European colonial domination, with only a few areas having gained independence or achieved limited autonomy. Although many African soldiers...

A c. 1900 painting by Alfredo Roque Gameiro showing the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1525) at Calicut in India. He was the first European to sail directly from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope, a voyage...

A map illustrating the scope and organization of the Roman provinces in Hispania (present-day Spain and Portugal.) Roman Spain was one of the first provinces beyond Italy; it took two centuries to conquer fully (starting with an invasion...

The 1502 Cantino World Map, acquired by Alberto Cantino from a Portuguese original in Lisbon. The map shows the world as then known to Europeans and indicates the line decided by the 1494 treaty of Tordesillas which demarcated two spheres...

A c. 1900 painting by Alfredo Roque Gameiro showing the departure of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1525) from Lisbon. He was the first European to sail directly from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope, a voyage taken...

A model of a 15th-century Portuguese caravel with lateen sails. The caravel was an important element of Portugal's ambitions to build an empire. (National Maritime Museum, Paris)