Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / Macau Portugal Lasting Empire in China
Transcript
- Lucas: So after Malacca fell in 1511, the Portuguese didn't stop. They'd heard about China — a vast, wealthy empire to the east — and they wanted a piece of that trade. But the Ming dynasty wasn't exactly rolling out the welcome mat. Luna: Did they even try to open relations diplomatically? Lucas: They did. In 1517, a fleet under Fernão Pires de Andrade sailed to Canton — modern Guangzhou — with an ambassador named Tomé Pires. Pires was a pharmacist, actually, who'd written a famous book on Asian spices. The local Ming officials were suspicious, but they let the embassy proceed to Beijing. Lucas: But while Pires was making his way to the capital, another Portuguese captain, Simão de Andrade — brother of Fernão — started building a fort on an island near Canton, treating the locals roughly. Word reached Beijing that these 'barbarians' were building strongholds. By the time Pires got an audience, the emperor was furious. Luna: So the embassy failed completely? Lucas: Worse than failed. Pires and his entire retinue were imprisoned. Most died in a Chinese jail. And then in 1521, a Portuguese fleet tried to force its way into the Pearl River delta and was decisively beaten at the Battle of Tunmen. The Ming banned Portuguese trade entirely. Luna: So how did they ever get a foothold? That seems like a dead end. Lucas: It took decades of smuggling, bribery, and patient diplomacy. Portuguese traders began operating out of islands like Lampacao, south of Canton, paying off local officials. Then in 1554, a captain named Leonel de Sousa negotiated a deal with the haidao — the 'sea intendant' — of Canton. He agreed that the Portuguese would pay customs duties and behave like other foreign traders, not like conquerors. Lucas: That opened the door. Three years later, in 1557, the Ming authorities officially allowed the Portuguese to settle on a tiny, barren peninsula called Macau — named after A-Ma, the goddess of sailors, because there was a temple to her there. The Portuguese paid an annual ground rent of 500 taels of silver — about 19 kilograms — and were told they could stay as long as they behaved. Luna: So Macau was basically a lease, not a conquest. That's very different from Goa or Malacca. Lucas: Exactly. The Ming never formally ceded sovereignty — they called Macau a 'trading post' under Chinese jurisdiction. The Portuguese had their own governor and administration, but they were always tenants, not sovereigns. That ambiguity lasted for 442 years, until the handover in 1999. Lucas: Once settled, Macau became a phenomenally lucrative hub. The key was the silver trade. Japan was producing vast amounts of silver, and China was desperate for it — they'd switched to a silver-based tax system. But the Ming forbade direct trade with Japan, so Portuguese ships from Macau stepped in. Luna: So they were middlemen between two countries that wouldn't deal with each other? Lucas: Exactly. Every year, the Great Ship from Macau — a huge carrack, sometimes 1,200 tons — sailed to Nagasaki loaded with Chinese silks and gold, and returned with Japanese silver. The profit margins were absurd. At its peak, a single voyage could net the equivalent of millions of modern dollars. The silver financed the entire Estado da Índia. Luna: That's incredible. And I love that we can talk about these things without any ads interrupting. It really lets the story breathe. Lucas: That's exactly the idea. We deliberately keep this show ad-free so we can dive deep into episodes like this without breaking the flow. If you want to support that choice, it's easy — just go to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Any little bit helps keep the history coming. Luna: Yeah, it's a simple way to show appreciation for the work that goes into these scripts. Lucas: So, aside from trade, Macau also became a launchpad for Jesuit missions. The Jesuits set up a college there, St. Paul's, which trained missionaries for China and Japan. One of the most famous was Matteo Ricci — though he was Italian, he travelled to Macau in 1582 and then spent the rest of his life in China, translating Euclid and making clocks for the emperor. Luna: Did the Ming actually allow Jesuits into the capital? Lucas: They did — cautiously. The Jesuits presented themselves as scholars, not priests, and they brought gifts: a harpsichord, a chiming clock, and most importantly, Western astronomy. The Ming needed accurate calendar-making, and Jesuit astronomers proved better than the traditional ones. By the 1600s, a few Jesuits were actually employed in the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy. Lucas: But Macau's golden age didn't last. In 1639, Japan expelled all Portuguese traders, blaming them for spreading Christianity. The silver trade collapsed. Then the Dutch tried to seize Macau in 1622 — they landed but were repelled by a mix of Portuguese soldiers, African slaves, and Chinese defenders. Still, the city's commercial role shrank as the Portuguese empire itself declined. Luna: But the territory stayed Portuguese. Did the Chinese ever try to take it back? Lucas: A few times, but mostly they just let it be. After the Ming fell, the Qing dynasty kept the same arrangement. Macau became a quiet backwater — a shadow of its former glory. But because of that early adaptability — the willingness to pay rent and not conquer — Portugal managed to hold onto it until the very end of the empire. It's a strange, enduring legacy for a small nation. Luna: And it's still a place with that unique Portuguese-Chinese culture — the food, the architecture, the language echoes. Lucas: Absolutely. Walking through the ruins of St. Paul's or the old Senado Square, you can still feel that history. It's a reminder that empires aren't always built on battles — sometimes they're built on a lease, a temple, and a lot of patience.