On the Portuguese Seaborne Empire

Now this is a great book about a colonial empire. Although the first half, which offers a chronological treatment divided into Asian and American portions, goes a bit slow and I didn’t find it terribly interesting, the second half is absolutely excellent. In it, Boxer examines some of the sinews of empire, including the actual mechanics of travel and sail (why don’t more histories have this??), the role of religion and race (is Portugal a “nation of Jews?” The answer may surprise you), the status of clergy and aristocracy, merchant affairs, education, messianism and Sebastianism (it’s like Twelver Shi‘ism but Portuguese!), and intellectual life.

Great stuff.