Anywhere on the coasts of Asia, America and Africa you can find a fort, a church, a geographical name or a family name, that come from Portugal.
These are the remains of the first European country that explored the world in search of spices and souls.
Afonso de Albuquerque's dream, was an infusion of Portuguese blood in each of the colonies.
As the Dutch Governor Antonio Van Diemen said in 1642 :
"Most of the Portuguese in Asia look upon this region as their fatherland, and think no more about Portugal"
In XVth century a small nation as Portugal began to explore the Atlantic ocean , since 1415 (conquest of Ceuta, Morocco) the Portuguese explored the African's coasts in search of a road to the East; and in 1487 Bartolomeu Dias doubled the cape of Good Hope.
After ten years (1497-1499) Vasco de Gama arrived in India (18 May 1498), and opened a new trading route between Europe and Asia.
This small nation was the ruler of the Indian ocean for about 150 years and the Portuguese language was for more than 250 years the trading language (lingua franca) of the Asiatic coasts.

At the beginning of the XVII century another small nation, the United Provinces of Netherlands took the place of Portugal. The United Provinces with the West and the East India companies the GWC (WIC) (Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie) and the VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) ruled the scene for nearly 150 years, until the coming of the English power. Amsterdam was the commercial and financial capital of the whole Europe and The Netherlands was the leading commercial nation.

Last update: 16/03/2008