Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese Bombardeiros: The Artillery That Fore an Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, we've talked a lot about ships and navigators, but there's a whole other side to how Portugal built its empire — the gunners. The bombardeiros. Luna: The bombardeiros — those are the artillerymen, right? Lucas: Exactly. And they were absolutely crucial. From the very first steps overseas, at the capture of Ceuta in 1415, the Portuguese brought bombardas — early cannons — that terrified the defenders. The Marinid walls were no match for stone cannonballs. Luna: So the bombard was basically a stone-throwing tube? Lucas: Pretty much. Early bombardas were wrought iron, built from staves like a barrel, bound with hoops. They fired stone balls — sometimes weighing over a hundred kilos. They were crude, but they worked. And the Portuguese quickly became experts at casting them in bronze, which was stronger and more reliable. Lucas: The main foundry was at the Ribeira das Naus in Lisbon — same place they built the ships. They cast cannons there for centuries. But there were also secret foundries in the Algarve, like in Lagos, where they experimented with different alloys. Luna: I didn't know the Algarve had cannon foundries. I think of it as just beaches and sardines. Lucas: Right? But the Algarve was strategically placed — close to North Africa, easy to transport guns. And they trained bombardeiros there too. It became a kind of school for gunners. Lucas: The bombardeiros were a privileged class. They had their own guild, their own rules. They were exempt from certain taxes, and they could be punished severely if they mishandled powder. But they were also in high demand across the empire. Luna: So did the Portuguese train local gunners in Asia and Africa? Lucas: Yes, and that's a fascinating story. One figure is João de Deus, a bombardier who went to Goa in the 1530s. He taught local artisans how to cast bronze cannons. Before that, the Indians mainly used iron cannons, which were heavier and more prone to bursting. The Portuguese brought the technique of casting in one piece — no welded seams. Luna: That must have been a game changer for local rulers too. Lucas: Absolutely. The Estado da Índia actually controlled the export of bronze cannons. They would sell or gift them to allied princes — like the Zamorin of Calicut before the wars — but they kept the best ones for themselves. Lucas: There were different types of guns. The berço was a small swivel gun, basically a big musket mounted on a fork. Sailors loved it because you could aim it quickly. The camelo was a longer, medium-calibre gun used on ships. And then there were the huge siege cannons, like the ones used at the Siege of Diu in 1538. Luna: I remember that siege — the Portuguese held out against a huge Ottoman and Gujarati army. Lucas: Right. And the cannons were decisive. The Portuguese had about a dozen big bronze guns that could fire farther and more accurately than the Ottoman iron ones. The gunners targeted the enemy artillery positions and took them out one by one. Luna: So the bombardeiros were literally the difference between victory and defeat. Lucas: Often, yes. And they were also innovators. They developed a kind of grapeshot — they called it 'metralha' — which was basically scrap metal packed into a canvas bag, fired into enemy formations. Devastating at close range. Lucas: Now, speaking of innovation — and this might seem like a tangent, but it's connected — we make this show without any ads. No sponsors, no interruptions. We do it because we love digging into these stories, and we figure you'd rather not have a commercial break in the middle of a siege. If you appreciate that approach, the best way to support it is a small contribution at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps us independent. Luna: Yeah, it's a nice model. No ads means we can go deep without worrying about time. So back to the gunners — did they have any manuals or textbooks? Lucas: They did. In the 16th century, a Portuguese gunner named João Fernandes wrote a manual called 'O Livro da Artilharia'. It covered everything: how to mix powder, how to aim, how to cast cannon. It was used all over Europe. And another one by a man named António de Brito, who served in India, described how to adapt European techniques to local materials. Luna: So it wasn't just brute force — there was a science to it. Lucas: Huge science. They calculated trajectories, tested powder ratios, even experimented with different types of stone for cannonballs. In Brazil, they used granite. In Africa, they often used a local basalt. The bombardeiros were some of the most educated men in the empire. Lucas: One of the most famous bombardeiros was a man named Gonçalo de Sousa. He served in the Persian Gulf, at the fortress of Hormuz. He was known for being able to hit a target at a thousand paces — almost a kilometre — with a bronze cannon. The Persians called him 'the thunder man'. Luna: Thunder man. That's a great title. Lucas: He earned it. When the fortress was besieged in 1622 by a combined Anglo-Persian force, his cannons held them off for weeks. Eventually they ran out of powder, but the gunners had already taken a heavy toll. Luna: So what happened to the art of the bombardeiros? Did it die out? Lucas: It evolved. By the 18th century, iron cannons became cheaper and more standardised. The bronze casting tradition faded. But the knowledge the Portuguese bombardeiros accumulated — it spread to Brazil, to Africa, to Asia. Local foundries in Goa continued casting bronze cannons well into the 19th century. You can still see them in museums today. Lucas: And the bombardeiros themselves became a sort of legend. In Portugal, they were celebrated in folk songs — 'the gunners of the king, who speak with thunder'. It's a nice image, isn't it? Luna: Speaking with thunder. That's a perfect way to end.