This is a new book that will be published in November 2026.
For over 100 years, from 1497 to 1606, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade as they extended their maritime empire across Asia. The Portuguese Estado da India (State of India) flourished on this trade, which brought products from across the world that were all new to Europe, including African gold and ivory, Indian spices and textiles, Indonesian spices and textiles, Chinese porcelain and silks, and Timorese sandalwood. Portuguese was the lingua franca of the Portuguese maritime trade and became a global language spoken on four continents.
This book follows the Portuguese voyages and the expansion of their trading Empire across the eastern seas from Goa to Malacca, from Malacca to the Indonesian Spice Islands, from Malacca to Solor and Timor, from Malacca to Macau, and from Macau to Nagasaki. In 1606, the Dutch East India Company began challenging the Portuguese Estado da India, forcing the Portuguese to adopt various strategies to ensure their survival. This book then follows the decline of their Empire, and two hundred years later, Portuguese traders had almost vanished from the Eastern Seas, with only remnant communities left in Goa, Malacca, Macau, Jakarta, Larantuka and Timor-Leste.