The Art of War in the Portuguese Empire

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

The teaching of this course is based on theoretical and theoretical-practical classes, supported by the analysis of texts, readings and individual work, with the presentation and debate of the issues arising from those works.

Learning Outcomes

This course provides the students with a global and coherent view of the practice and development of the “art of war” in the Portuguese empire from the conquest of Ceuta (1415) to the African independences (1975), highlighting the most important features of the Portuguese military organization and its contextualization in the different periods and spaces of the Portuguese overseas expansion.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

INTRODUCTION.

Military history in Portugal: new perspectives on the empire.

1. PORTUGAL IN EUROPE AND IN THE EMPIRE.

1. 1. Portugal in the Iberian and European contexts.

1. 2. Portugal and the overseas expansion: time, space and actors of the Portuguese imperial configurations.

2. WAR, SOCIETY AND POWER IN THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE.

2. 1. Conjunctures and theatres of operation.

2. 2. The art of war: Portuguese military organization.

2. 2. 1. Recruitment and supply.

2. 2. 2. The cost of war.

2. 2. 3. Social status and military hierarchies.

2. 2. 4. The ordenanças system.

2. 2. 5. Local population and alliances in the Portuguese military effort.

3. THE IMAGINARY AND THE ART OF WAR.

3. 1. The military ethos.

3. 2. Texts: authors and works.

3. 3. Arms and the symbols of power.

Assessment Methods

Assessement
Research work: 100.0%

Bibliography

1. AAVV, A guerra e o encontro de civilizações a partir do século XVI. Actas do XXIV Congresso Internacional de História Militar, Lisboa, Comissão Portuguesa de História Militar, 1999.

2. BARATA, Manuel Themudo; TEIXEIRA, Nuno Severiano (dir.), Nova História Militar de Portugal, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 2003-2004, 5 vols.

3. BETHENCOURT, Francisco; CHAUDHURI, Kirti (dir.), História da Expansão Portuguesa, vol. 1: A Formação do Império (1415 1570), vol. 2: Do Índico ao Atlântico (1570 1697), vol. 3: O Brasil na Balança do Império (1697 1808), Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1998.

4. PARKER, Geoffrey, The military revolution: military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

5. PEERS, Douglas M. (ed.), Warfare and Empires. Contact and conflict between European and non-European military and maritime forces and cultures, “An Expanding World, 24”, Aldershot, Variorum, 1997.