Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World

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.

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. As well as sparking further comparisons between cities found within the Portuguese empire, this collection also raises 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.