The Portuguese Empire's African Fortresses: Slaves, Gold, and Ivory

The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History · Jun 4, 2026 · 10m · transcript

This episode of The History of Portugal takes listeners to the West African coast, where the Portuguese built a chain of stone fortresses—Elmina, São Jorge da Mina, Axim, and others—that became the economic engine of the early empire. Lucas and Luna explore the dual life of these feitorias: trading posts for gold and ivory that later became hubs of the transatlantic slave trade. They discuss the role of local African powers like the Denkyira and the Asante, the logistics of the slave trade from the Gold Coast to Brazil, and the moral contradictions of men like Diogo de Azambuja, who founded…