Portuguese Empire: Ports and Profits

"Control of fortified ports allowed Portugal to dominate maritime commerce across Africa, Brazil and Asia, creating an empire based on movement rather than territory. Faith played a central role in legitimising its expansion as missionaries accompanied merchants and military forces. Ports enforced systems of enslavement and forced labour, binding religious authority to economic extraction. Slavery became central to imperial wealth, linking African labour to plantations and markets across the Atlantic."

"By integrating slavery into global trade networks, the Portuguese Empire played a central role in shaping modern economic systems, racial hierarchies and patterns of inequality that persist today. Control once exercised through ports and sea routes increasingly runs through digital infrastructure, including submarine cables and data centres, as Portugal emerges as an important hub linking Europe, Africa and the Americas."

Fortified ports and controlled trade routes enable Portugal to dominate maritime commerce across Africa, Brazil, and Asia, creating an empire organized around circulation rather than territorial conquest. Missionaries accompany merchants and military forces, fusing religious authority with commercial and political aims. Ports enforce systems of enslavement and forced labour, making slavery central to imperial wealth by linking African labour to Atlantic plantations and markets. Integration of slavery into global trade networks helps shape modern economic systems, racial hierarchies, and persistent inequality. Contemporary control shifts toward digital infrastructure—submarine cables and data centres—positioning Portugal as a hub connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Read at www.aljazeera.com