Creolization and Diaspora in the Portuguese Indies, 1640-1720.

CREOLIZATION AND DIASPORA IN THE PORTUGUESE INDIES. THE SOCIAL WORLD OF AYUTTHAYA, 1640-1720. [TITLE PAGE] Abstract. The issue of decline in the wake of a short-lived but intense golden age of the Portuguese Empire in the East has been a very difficult... More

CREOLIZATION AND DIASPORA IN THE PORTUGUESE INDIES. THE SOCIAL WORLD OF AYUTTHAYA, 1640-1720. [TITLE PAGE] Abstract. The issue of decline in the wake of a short-lived but intense golden age of the Portuguese Empire in the East has been a very difficult one for Portuguese historiography traditionally to confront, although recently voices have called for a reappraisal, arguing that it is possible to perceive something of a renascence or a `second wave’ under the House of Braganza between 1640-1683, with contemporaries even entertaining parallels to Emperor Trajan’s rejuvenation of the decrepit Roman empire (98-117 A. D. ). Indeed, rather than seeing desperate communities of expatriated Europeans clinging on to ever receding territorial landholdings, attention can be drawn to visions of population movements consolidating and invigorating existent colonies, with bold plans to move large numbers of Indians into Mozambique, to send exiled Portuguese to populate Solor, alongside the ad-ho Less