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Book Review
Comparative/World
Glenn J. Ames. Renascent Empire? The House of Braganza and the Quest for Stability in Portuguese Monsoon Asia, c. 16401683. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 2000. Pp. 262.
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When Dom João, the duke of Braganza, was placed on the throne of Portugal in 1640 instead of the Habsburg kings who had ruled there from 1580, the expectation was that the change would relieve the hard-pressed Portuguese empire to a fair extent. The Dutch, after all, were declared enemies of Spain and not of Portugal, and it was thought that an independent Portugal would benefit considerably from its new place in the international alliance system. This view turned out to be more or less correct, although the process took time, and the reasons were not necessarily those that had been foreseen. Glenn J. Ames sets out in this compact book to examine the consequences of the "Restoration" of the House of Braganza in 1640 for the Portuguese empire in Asia. The period that is dealt with includes the reign of Dom João IV (to 1656), the regency of Dona Luisa, the period of direct rule of Dom Afonso VI (16621668), and, perhaps most crucially, the first half of the regency of Dom Pedro (16681702). The period treated thus overlaps in some measure with that analyzed in a fine but rather underestimated book, Carl A. Hanson's Economy and Society in Baroque Portugal, 16681703 (1980), but Ames also has looked at fresh archival materials and offers some correctives to existing views. |
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