John III of Portugal

On 19 December 1521 John was crowned king in the Church of São Domingos in Lisbon, beginning a thirty-six-year reign characterized by extensive activity in internal and overseas politics, especially in relations with other major European states. John III continued the absolutist politics of his predecessors. He called the Portuguese Cortes only three times and at great intervals: 1525 in Torres Novas, 1535 in Évora and 1544 in Almeirim. During the early part of his reign, he also tried to restructure administrative and judicial life in his realm.

The marriage of John's sister Isabella of Portugal to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, enabled the Portuguese king to forge a stronger alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. To strengthen his ties with Austria he married his maternal first cousin Catherine of Austria, younger sister of Charles V and his erstwhile fiancée Eleanor, in the town of Crato. John III had nine children from that marriage, but most of them died at young age. By the time of John's death, only his grandson Sebastian was alive to inherit the crown.

The reign of John III was marked by active diplomacy. With Spain, he made alliances through marriage that ensured peace in the Iberian Peninsula for a number of years. He himself married Catherine of Austria, the daughter of Philip I of Castile. His sister Isabella of Portugal married Charles V, the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor. His daughter Maria Manuela married King Philip II of Spain – and there were others. However, the intermarriage of these closely related royal families may have been one of the factors that contributed to the poor health of John's children and of future King Sebastian of Portugal.

John III remained neutral during the war between France and Spain, but stood firm in fighting the attacks of French privateers.

He strengthened relations with the Papal States by introducing the Inquisition in Portugal and the adhesion of the Portuguese clergy to the Counter-Reformation. This relationship with the Catholic Church made it possible for John to name whomever he desired to important religious positions in Portugal: his brothers Henry and Afonso were made Cardinals and his biological son, Duarte; was made Archbishop of Braga.

Commercial relations were intensified with England, the countries of the Baltic regions and Flanders during John III's reign. Meanwhile, in the opposite side of the world, Portugal was the first European nation to make contact with Japan. In China Macau was offered to the Portuguese, and soon Portugal controlled major trade routes in the area. In South Asia, the Portuguese continued its hostile stance against their Muslim rivals and insurgent Indian leaders.

In John III's time, trade between the Portuguese and Africans was extremely intense in feitorias such Arguim, Mina, Mombasa, Sofala or Mozambique.[8] Under John III, several expeditions started in coastal Africa and advanced to the interior of the continent. These expeditions were formed by groups of navigators, merchants, adventurers and missionaries. Missions in Africa were established by the College of Arts of Coimbra. The objective was to increase the king's dominion, develop peaceful relations and to Christianize the indigenous peoples. Relations with local rulers were often complicated by trade in slaves, as shown by John's correspondence with them.[9]

John III refused to abandon all of the Portuguese North African strongholds, but he had to make choices based on the economic or strategic value of each possession. John III decided to leave Safim and Azamor in 1541, followed by Arzila and Alcácer Ceguer in 1549. The fortresses of Ceuta, Tangiers and Mazagan were strengthened "to face the new military techniques, imposed by the generalization of heavy artillery, combined with light fire weapons and blades".[10]

John III's court jester was João de Sá Panasco, a black African, who was eventually admitted to the prestigious Order of Saint James based on his service in the Conquest of Tunis (1535).[11][12]

Francis Xavier asking King John III for the Evangelization of Asia; Avelar Rebelo, 1635.

Before the reign of John III, the Portuguese had already reached Siam (1511), the Maluku Islands (1512), the Chinese littoral (1513), Canton (1517) and Timor (1515). During John's rule the Portuguese reached Japan, and at the end of John's reign Macau was offered to Portugal by China. From India, John III imported an amazing variety of spices, herbs, minerals, and fabrics; from Malacca, exotic woods and spice; from Bengala, fabrics and exotic foodstuffs; from Alexandria and Cairo, exotic woods, metals, minerals, fabrics, and boullion; and from China, musk, rhubarb, & silk in exchange for gromwells, pearls, horses from Arabia and Persia, non-worked silk, silk embroidery threads, fruits of the date palm, raisins, salt, sulphur and many other goods.[13]

As Muslims and other peoples constantly attacked Portuguese fleets in India, and because it was so far away from mainland Portugal, it was extremely difficult for John III to secure Portuguese dominion in this area. A viceroy (or Governor-General with extensive powers) was nominated, but it was not enough to defend the Portuguese possessions in India. The Portuguese started by creating feitorias – commercial strongholds in Cochin, Cannanore, Coulão, Cranganore and Tanor – with the initial objective of establishing just a commercial dominion in the region.

The hostility of many Indian kingdoms and alliances between sultans and zamorins with the intent of expelling the Portuguese made it necessary for the Europeans to establish a sovereign state. Portugal thus militarily occupied some key cities on the Indian coast and Goa became the headquarters of the Portuguese Empire in the East as of 1512. Goa became a starting point for the introduction of European cultural and religious values in India, and churches, schools and hospitals were built. Goa remained an overseas possession of Portugal until India reclaimed it in 1961.

The Portuguese arrived in Japan in 1543. Japan had been known in Portugal since the time of Marco Polo, who called it "Cipango". Whether Portuguese nationals were the first Europeans to arrive in Japan is debated. Some say the first Portuguese arrival was the writer Fernão Mendes Pinto, while others say it was the navigators António Peixoto, António da Mota and Francisco Zeimoto.

Portuguese traders started negotiating with Japan as early as of 1550 and established a base there in Nagasaki. By then, trade with Japan was a Portuguese monopoly under the rule of a Captain. Because the Portuguese established themselves in Macau, Chinese commercial relations and the silver trade with Japan were improved under John III's rule.

After the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, the Crown of Castile claimed the recently discovered Maluku Islands. In 1524, a conference of experts (cartographers, cosmographers, pilots, etc.) was held to solve the dispute caused by the difficulty of determining the meridian agreed to in the Treaty of Tordesillas. The Portuguese delegation sent by John III included names such as António de Azevedo Coutinho, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, Lopo Homem and Simão Fernandes. The dispute was settled in 1529 by the Treaty of Zaragoza, signed by John III and Charles I of Spain. The Portuguese paid 350.000 gold ducados to Spain and secured their presence in the islands, which not have been necessary, since Portugal was actually entitled to the islands according to the Treaty of Tordesillas.

In 1553, Leonel de Sousa obtained authorization for the Portuguese to establish themselves in Canton and Macau. Macau was later offered to John III as a reward for Portuguese assistance against maritime piracy in the period between 1557 and 1564. Malacca, which controlled the eponymous Strait of Malacca, was vital to Portuguese interests in the Far East. After an unsuccessful expedition in 1509, Malacca was finally captured by Afonso de Albuquerque, the Portuguese viceroy of India, on 24 August 1511. Malacca was later taken by the Dutch in 1641.

In order to follow its trade routes to the Far East, Portugal depended on the seasonal monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean. In winter the prevailing northeasterly monsoon impeded travel to India; in summer the southwest monsoon made departure from India difficult. As a result, Portugal decided that it needed permanent bases in India in addition to its ports in Africa, to pass the time while the wind was changing. In addition to Goa, they established themselves in Ceylon (in what is now Sri Lanka) through the conquest of several Ceylonese kingdoms in the sixteenth century. Portuguese Ceylon remained in Portuguese hands until 1658, when it was seized by the Dutch after an epic siege.

Captaincies of the Governorate General of Brazil

During the reign of King John III the Portuguese Empire established itself in South America with the foundation of the twelve Captaincy Colonies of Brazil (from 1534 onwards). Each with its own donatary captain, the twelve colonies worked independently. In 1549, John III established the Governorate General of Brazil, and the twelve captaincy colonies became subordinate to it. The first Governor-General appointed by John III, Tomé de Sousa, founded the city of Salvador, Bahia (São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos) in 1549. For his role in the colonization of South America, John III has been referred to as The Colonizer (Portuguese: "o Colonizador").[14]

Immediately following the discovery of Brazil in 1500, the Portuguese imported brazilwood, Indian slaves and exotic birds from there. Brazilian wood was a very appreciated product in Europe because it could be used to produce a type of red dye. During John III's rule, after the initial colonization, Portuguese explorers intensified the search for brazilwood and began the cultivation of sugarcane, which was well suited to the climate of Brazil and especially around Recife and Bahía.

In the final years of John's reign Portugal's colony of Brazil was just beginning its rapid development as a producer of sugar that compensated for the gradual decline of revenues from Asia, a development that would continue during the reign of his grandson and successor, Sebastian (1557–1578). Since Brazil lacked a large native population and the ones who lived there weren't adapted to the strenuous work required in the plantation fields, the Portuguese colonists began importing African slaves to strengthen the workforce present in the territory.. The first slaves, from the region of Guinea, arrived in Brazil in 1539. Most of them worked in the sugarcane fields or served as house servants.