Portugal and Africa by David Birmingham - 9780896802377

Portugal and AfricaAuthor(s): David Birmingham\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Ohio University Press, United States\nImprint: Ohio University Press\nISBN-13: 9780896802377, 978-0896802377\nSynopsis\nPortugal was the first European nation to assert itself aggressively in African affairs. David Birmingham's Portugal and Africa, a collection of uniquely accessible historical essays, surveys this colonial encounter from its earliest roots. The Portuguese established sugar plantations on Africa's offshore islands and built factories on the beaches in the fifteenth century, but Professor Birmingham explains that their focus shifted to regions where medieval African miners had discovered deep seams of gold ore. Later, when even richer mines and more fertile lands were captured from the native peoples of the Americas, Portuguese ships became the great \""slave bridge\"" that spanned the Atlantic and ferried captive black workers to the colonies of the New World.\n Portugal lost its major mining.