| Excellent quiz (and indeed series)! However, I would like to make a minor point about empire and colonization. This list of the Portuguese Empire appears to be exhaustive which is, of course, one of the very good things about it. However, it does include at least one place as part of the Portuguese Empire where the actual degree of Portuguese control was really quite minimal. An example, Ayutthaya in Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom was quite open to foreign traders and allowed (perhaps even invited) several to set up villages outside the walls of the city. No doubt the Portuguese exercised a degree of control over their village, but it's not at all clear that they exerted any control or even much influence over the kingdom itself. To make an inexact analogy it could be considered akin to McDonald's opening a restaurant in China. Yes, they may own the land and building and even exercise a lot of control within the restaurant but it's pretty clear whose governance they are under (China's, in case it wasn't clear ;-) At least in the case of Thailand, it's more like Portugal had an embassy and several businesses outside of Ayutthaya. So, yes Thailand was a part of the Portugese Empire, but more in the sense that China is part of the McDonald's Empire, rather than the sense that Britain controlled India. Not saying that it shouldn't count as part of the Portuguese Empire, but just hoping people realize that being part of the empire runs the gamut from a situation like that in Ayutthaya to a situation somewhere else where Portugal is in fact, controlling, administering, and in effect, governing the colony. Thailand is immensely proud that it is one of the very few developing countries in the world that largely escaped that sort of colonialism. |
Countries of the Ottoman Empire
Countries of the Dutch Empire
Countries of the Spanish Empire
