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Berlin Conference 1884-5 - Establishing the Rules of the Scramble for Africa
The Berlin Conference, also known as the Berlin West Africa Conference, was held between November 1884 and February 1885. Imperial powers, notably Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Germany, met to thrash out their competing claims for control...
Definition
Romani
Romani is an umbrella term used to describe a diverse ethnolinguistic group of people with a historical presence in Europe and West Asia. The historically common term 'Gypsy' is based on the myth that they came from Egypt. In reality, the...
Definition
Spanish Main
The Spanish Main refers, in its widest sense, to the Spanish Empire in the Americas from Florida in the north to the northern coast of Brazil in the south, including the Caribbean. The term was initially more limited and referred only to...
Definition
War of the Sixth Coalition
The War of the Sixth Coalition (1813-1814), known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, was the penultimate conflict of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). The Sixth Coalition, which included Russia, Austria, Prussia, the United Kingdom, Sweden...
Definition
Edward Low
Edward 'Ned' Low was an English pirate active in the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic from 1721 to 1724 during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730). Probably the most sadistic and cruelest of all pirate captains, Low was said to have frequently...
Definition
Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish (1560-1592 CE) was an Elizabethan mariner and privateer who famously circumnavigated the globe in 1586-88 CE, only the third voyage to do so and the first to set sail with that specific intention. Returning rich from Spanish...
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Afonso de Albuquerque
A 16th-century portrait of Afonso de Albuquerque who established the colony of Portuguese Goa in India and who served as the Viceroy of the Estado da India from 1509 to 1515. (National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon)
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Slavery in Brazil
A painting of a slave market in Portuguese Brazil by Jean-Baptiste Debret from an original 19th-century engraving by Johann Moritz Rugendas.
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Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa
The Jesuit Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India. The basilica was built in Portuguese Goa from 1594 to 1605.
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The Dutch Discovery of Australia
17th-century Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) navigators were the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil. Although there is a strong theory that the Portuguese explorer, Cristóvão de Mendonça (1475-1532...