How could this little shithole dominate all coast stretching from Portugal all the way to just south of ming?

How could this little shithole dominate all coast stretching from Portugal all the way to just south of ming?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    it wasn't a shithole back then

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Density

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Guns, Germs and Steel helped them out

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      All those places but Africa had all that too

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Is there any proof that these actually existed? Western shipbuilding was decidedly superior but even in the 19th century their ships didn't get this big

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Reddit

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Also big boats

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Portugal, one of the top 25 developed and richest countries in the world
    >shithole

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Not for long. Eastern Europe will soon catch up with us

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        eastern europe will catch all western europeans, and that's because you are receiving too much non-european immigration

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          You mean Western Europe will catch eastern Europe

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        lots of it has already

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    They didn't "dominate" it, but they were able to take advantage of the political situation in the Indian Ocean, e.g. using their position as a new, disruptive force to get alliances and upset the balance of power to their advantage.

    They were unquestionably great warriors, but lost when they got caught up in romantic notions e.g. the Battle of Chaul.

    The most they could do was patrol the Indian ocean and maintain forts, which were usually able to hold out against the local rulers.

    But they did not have the manpower to create a substantial presence in the region. They were constantly at war with the Ottomans and their local proxies, and were eventually displaced by the Dutch and English.

    Picrel is an excellent book on all of this.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Thanks for the rec, will check it out. Why does the author consider the Portuguese to have made the first global empire and not Spaniards?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Portugal was already exploring and annexing regions around the Indian Ocean before Columbus and the Spanish empire got rolling.
        There was a treaty between Spain and Portugal that divided the earth in half longitudinally. Portugal got Brazil and everything in the old world including Japan, while Spain only got the new world -Brazil.
        Granted this was before the Earth was fully explored and things didn't pan out in North America for the Spanish, but Portugal's claim has more merit to being global than Spain's.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          I see, thanks anon

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Extremely carefully.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    They didn't "dominate" the entire coast. They established fortresses at key locations and kept them afloat by having superior, ocean going ships. Sometimes those fortresses held out, sometimes they were lost. But on the balance lots of the surrounding places were unable or unwilling (due to making a profit by trading with the portuguese) to dislodge them. Often they got some local lords to help protect them because it was mutually beneficial.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      The cases I know they lost the attacers got foreign help (like the saffaids getting english aid in the persian gulf)

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Calling Portugal a shithole is stupid.

    It was the first global empire and had a golden age of exploration and progress.

    The last straw was the earthquake that completely destroyed Lisbon and killed all the elite in 1755.
    The country was completely fricked beyond repair after that and there was nothing that could have been done to prevent the destruction of theie empire.
    Many people like to compare Portugal with other later empires, but they forget that Portugal had their golden age in the 1500s-1600s, while later empires such as the Austria-Hungary were still gaining momentum during the 1800s.

    But hey, at least they had a golden age unlike other richer countries that exist today.

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