Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese Slave Trade: From Arguim to Brazil
Transcript
- Lucas: So far in our series, we've touched on Portuguese forts in Africa and the spice routes to India, but we haven't yet talked about the darker side of that expansion — the slave trade. And it's impossible to understand Portugal's empire without understanding how slavery shaped it, from the very first voyages down the African coast. Luna: We've mentioned slaves in passing, but never the full story. Where did it start? Lucas: It really begins with Prince Henry the Navigator in the 1440s. In 1441, a ship captain named Antão Gonçalves captured a dozen Africans near the Bay of Arguim, in modern-day Mauritania. That was the first major slave raid. But soon the Portuguese realized that raiding was inefficient — it provoked resistance and made trade difficult. So they shifted to a commercial model, buying slaves from local African rulers. Lucas: Within a few years, Henry's captains were bringing back hundreds of captives. In 1444, a single expedition led by Nuno Tristão brought over 200 slaves to Lagos, in the Algarve. That was a turning point — it was a public auction, basically, and it shocked even some of the Portuguese onlookers. Luna: So the first slave market in Europe was in Portugal. Lucas: Exactly. Lagos became the entry point. The royal chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara described that auction in detail, trying to justify it as a form of Christian salvation. But he also recorded the horrifying scene of families being separated. That moral tension runs through the whole history. Lucas: As the Portuguese moved further south, they built fortified trading posts — feitorias — along the coast. The most famous was São Jorge da Mina, in present-day Ghana, built in 1482. That fort became a major hub not just for gold but for slaves, though initially the Portuguese were more interested in gold and pepper. The slave trade really exploded later, when demand from the Americas kicked in. Luna: So the slave trade from Africa wasn't a big part of the early Portuguese empire? It grew over time? Lucas: Right. In the 15th century, most slaves went to Portugal itself or to the Atlantic islands like Madeira and São Tomé, where they worked on sugar plantations. By the 1520s, Lisbon had a significant African population — maybe 10% of the city. They worked as domestic servants, artisans, and even as soldiers. Some gained freedom and became part of the urban fabric. Lucas: But the game-changer was the colonization of Brazil. Starting in the mid-1500s, the demand for labor on sugar plantations skyrocketed. The Portuguese turned to Africa in a massive way. They developed a system called the cartaz — originally used for the spice trade — to license and control slave ships. And they partnered with local African kingdoms, like the Kongo and later the states of the Slave Coast. Luna: The cartaz system — that was the permit system for Indian Ocean shipping, right? They adapted it for slaves? Lucas: Exactly. The Casa da Índia in Lisbon issued cartazes for slave ships from the Mina coast and Angola. Ships had to follow approved routes, pay duties, and carry only authorized cargo. It was a way to tax and regulate what became an enormous trade. By the early 1600s, the Portuguese were shipping tens of thousands of slaves across the Atlantic every year. Lucas: And it wasn't just the Portuguese crown. Private merchants, many of them New Christians — converted Jews — became deeply involved. The asientos, contracts to supply slaves to Spanish America, were often held by Portuguese merchants. In fact, between 1580 and 1640, when Portugal was under Spanish rule, the Portuguese dominated the entire Spanish American slave trade. Luna: So the Portuguese essentially supplied slaves to all of the Americas, not just their own colony. Lucas: That's right. The numbers are staggering. By the time the transatlantic trade ended in the 19th century, roughly 40% of all Africans brought to the Americas were carried on Portuguese ships. That's about 4.5 million people. And the human cost is immeasurable — the Middle Passage was brutal, with mortality rates sometimes over 20% per voyage. Lucas: There's also a lesser-known aspect: slavery within Africa itself. The Portuguese didn't create African slavery, but they greatly expanded it. They supplied guns to coastal kingdoms, which then raided inland for captives to trade. That fueled conflicts and destabilized entire regions, with effects that lasted long after the trade ended. Luna: It's a really sobering legacy. And it's so connected to the story of Portugal's rise as a global power. Lucas: Absolutely. The same ships that carried spices from India also carried slaves. The same institutions that managed the spice monopoly — the Casa da Índia — also managed the slave trade. It was all part of the same imperial system. And if today's episode has given you a clearer picture of that, it's exactly the kind of thing we aim for here. This show stays ad-free because of listener support. If you find these conversations useful, you can help keep them going at buymeacoffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: That's a good point. It's important to have these honest, detailed looks at history. Lucas: So, back to the legacy — one of the most visible reminders is in Lisbon itself. The neighborhood of Alfama, where many enslaved Africans lived, still bears traces of that history. And in recent years, monuments have been erected to acknowledge the role of slavery in building Portugal's wealth. It's a history that's still being reckoned with. Luna: It's a complex story — not just about empire, but about how that empire was built on human lives. Lucas: Exactly. And understanding that complexity is what makes history meaningful. Thanks for joining us.