Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World Empire and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-2000 Series

Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World is a collection of essays on the cities of the Portuguese empire written by the leading scholars in the field. The volume, like the empire it analyzes, has a global scope and a chronological span of three centuries. The contributions focus on the social, political, and economic aspects of city life in settlements as far apart as Rio de Janeiro, Mozambique Island, and Nagasaki. Despite the seeming (and real) disparities between the colonial cities located in South America, Africa, and Asia, this volume demonstrates that they possessed a range of commonalities. Beyond their shared language, these cities had similar social, religious, and political institutions that shaped their identities. In many cases, the civic bodies analyzed in these essays such as the city councils or the Misericórdias (charitable brotherhoods), no less than the convents and houses of Catholic religious orders, contributed more to making these cities Portuguese than their allegiance to the crown in Lisbon. Rather than dividing the globe into Atlantic and Indian Ocean spheres, Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World takes the novel approach of bringing together analyses of the social history of these cities in order to stress their shared aspects as well as to suggest paths for fruitful comparisons. By encouraging further scholarship in this rich, yet understudied subject, this collection will not only further comparisons between cities found within the Portuguese empire, but also raise important issues that will be of interest to historians of other European empires, as well as urban historians generally.

Contents: Introduction: nodes of empire, Liam Matthew Brockey. Part I Religion and Empire:: In the shadow of empire: Portuguese Jewish communities in the 16th century, José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim; The Jesuits and the political language of the city: riot and procession in early 17th-century Salvador da Bahia, Charlotte de Castelnau-L'Estoile; Nagasaki: the early years of an early modern Japanese city, J.S.A. Elisonas. Part II Cities and Commerce: Mozambique island: the rise and decline of a colonial port city, Malyn Newitt; The province of the North: continuity and change in an age of decline and rebirth, ca. 1571-1680, Glenn J. Ames; Charity, ritual and business at the edge of empire: the Misericórdia of Macau, Isabel dos Guimarães Sá. Part III Politics of Empire: The king's processions: municipal and royal authority and the hierarchies of power in colonial Salvador, Stuart B. Schwartz; Notes on a project for the city of Goa, Diogo Ramada Curto; Sol oriens in occiduo: representations of empire and the city in early 18th-century Brazil, Kirsten Schultz; Luanda: a colonial city between Africa and the Atlantic, 17th and 18th centuries, Catarina Madeira Santos; Index.

Liam Matthew Brockey is a specialist in early modern European history, with a focus on the Portuguese Empire and religious history. He is currently an Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University, USA. Brockey's studies have focused on Jesuit missionaries in China and India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.