With the rise of the colonial movement and increasingly closer trade with the East and other parts of the world, Lisbon, the origin of early navigation, has also achieved good development.
The port is very busy, with goods from all over the world gathering here and then being transferred to other places.
The largest number of these are goods and slaves from Portugal's colonies in the north and Africa. African gold, silver and ivory are the most popular items, especially ivory. The people of the Ming Dynasty have an inexplicable obsession with ivory. Every ivory can be
Sell it at a high price here in Ming Dynasty.
As for slaves, this is the most profitable business now.
The cost of acquiring a slave is often so low that it is negligible, but as long as it is transported to Hong Kong in England or the West Island in the Mediterranean and sold to the Ming people, these slaves can often be sold for a dozen or twenty Ming silver coins.
.
In particular, white slaves from North Africa were the most popular and sought-after goods in the Ming Dynasty, and could often be sold at higher prices.
The slave trade and colonial wealth greatly stimulated the development of Lisbon, making it prosperous and lively, and also stimulated Portugal's continuous foreign colonization and plunder.
Owning a colony overseas often means continuous wealth.
This made the Portuguese, who had failed in both wars, pay more attention to external colonial activities. Without the wealth of the colonies, the Portuguese would have been in trouble long ago.
In the royal palace of Lisbon, King Manuel I of Portugal, who was in his prime of life, was looking at the world map and was lost in thought.
Manuel I was an ambitious and accomplished monarch.
From the moment he ascended the throne of Portugal, he vigorously supported foreign expansion and maritime colonization, and successively supported Vasco da Gama in opening a route to the Indian Ocean.
In 1500, Cabral discovered Brazil again and established a huge colony in Brazil; the following year, two brothers of the Colt family discovered Labrador.
A few years later, Portugal began to invade the mainland of Tianzhu, established the Goa colony in Tianzhu, and even blocked the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea for a time, monopolizing the spice trade, and obtained huge returns and profits.
But the days that followed became more difficult.
First, the colonies in Tianzhu were snatched away by the Ming Dynasty. Not only the Goa area was lost, but also the spice trade was lost, which was replaced by the Ming Dynasty.
Then came the colonies in South America, which were wiped out by the Ming Dynasty. After that, the entire vast American continent was swallowed up by the Ming Dynasty.
Then the first war against Spain broke out. Portugal, England and France jointly sent troops to attack Spain.
It went smoothly at first, but Spain was about to be defeated. Who knew that the Ming Empire intervened again, and the powerful Ming fleet directly defeated the Portuguese fleet and even bombarded Lisbon.
There was no other way. Manuel I could only make peace with the Spanish and lost some colonies in West Africa under relatively acceptable conditions.
Later, England, France and Portugal were jealous of the Spanish's exclusive trade rights with the Ming Empire, and acted as pirates to rob Spanish ships.
Therefore, the first war with Spain broke out. This time, when it was about to win again, the Ming Empire intervened again. In the end, the Three Kingdoms ended in failure again.
Not only did Portugal lose some of its land bordering Spain, but it also almost lost all of its overseas colonies. It even had to pay huge war reparations to Spain and the Ming Empire.
Fortunately, in the past two years, due to the Ottoman Empire's westward expansion, European countries had to put aside their conflicts to deal with the Ottoman Empire together.
In the end, the coalition forces suffered a tragic victory and won the Battle of Vienna, repelling the invasion of the Ottoman Empire and defending Christendom.
This gave Portugal some breathing room.
Taking advantage of these two years, Portugal also rapidly carried out colonial expansion overseas, expanding some new colonies and colonial points in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and other places in North Africa.
At the same time, it increased its colonial expansion and intensity in West Africa and regained some colonies.
Through the plundering and trade of colonies and other means, Portugal was able to take a breather and obtain a large amount of wealth and benefits.
Think back to everything that has happened over the years.
King Manuel I quickly realized one thing.
That is, there will be no good consequences for those who go against the Ming Empire. On the contrary, those who cooperate with the Ming Empire will gain huge benefits.
Portugal and Spain are two typical examples.
Portugal has been fighting against the Ming Empire since Tianzhu, and the result is that it keeps losing. It was going smoothly at first, but became stronger and stronger, and was quickly beaten back to its original shape.
On the other hand, Spain embraced the strong legs of the Ming Empire early on. Over the years, life has become better and better, and it has become the big brother of Europe.
Not only did it win two wars in succession, but on the European side, it gained colonies from English pirates and gained meat from France and Portugal.
Moreover, the expansion of overseas colonies has always been smooth sailing. It is the only country in Europe that still has colonies in the Americas. It makes a lot of money from trade with the Ming Empire.
On the African side, the colonies that Portugal had worked so hard to develop were almost completely ceded to Spain, and Spain itself also relied on powerful force to obtain a large number of colonies.
It even followed the Ming Empire and beat up the Ottoman Empire. It also has colonies in the Aegean Sea. The powerful Spanish fleet is not only active in various waters of Western Europe, but also on Sicily in the Mediterranean and islands in the Aegean Sea.
There is a Spanish fleet.
This is the benefit of hugging the Ming Empire's thighs tightly.
"The Ming Empire!"
King Manuel I looked at the huge world map. Most of the places on it already belonged to the territory of the Ming Empire, including Asia, America, and Australia. There was also a large amount of land occupied by the Ming vassals and colonial trading houses.
Thinking of the huge territory of the Ming Empire, the huge population of hundreds of millions, and the terrifying fleet and army, Manuel I felt desperate.
From the newspapers published by the Ming people, we can know that the Ming Empire was so powerful that it made people despair.
What the Portuguese are most proud of is Portugal's strong shipbuilding capabilities and maritime power.
However, the entire country of Portugal cannot build dozens of large ships in a year. After all, the entire population of Portugal is only about one million. Apart from the large agricultural population, there are actually not many shipbuilders.
But it was different here in the Ming Empire. Just one shipyard in Tianjin, Tianjin Shipyard, could build more ships in a month than the entire country of Portugal in a year.
There are many shipyards like this throughout the Ming Dynasty, distributed in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. The wood used for shipbuilding comes from all over the world. Even now, they have begun to build large steam ships and try to use steel to build ships.
In addition to the huge wealth owned by the Ming Empire, the court could receive huge taxes of more than 500 million taels of silver a year. This was a huge wealth that Manuel I could not imagine.
"Being an enemy of such a powerful empire is simply the most stupid behavior!"
Manuel I had to make such a decision regarding his previous behavior.
Just when Manuel I fell into reflection.
A minister came in a hurry, his face full of sorrow.
"Your Majesty, it's not good~"
"We have just received news from West Africa that when Duke Anthony led the fleet to seize Sao Tome Island, the Spanish Duke Colste led a fleet to sneak attack our fleet."
"Sinked all our warships on Sao Tome Island, and also robbed Sao Tome Island!"
Duke Afonso anxiously handed a piece of information to Manuel I.
"What?"
When Manuel I heard this, his whole body fell into a daze, and then he quickly recovered and hurriedly took the information and read it quickly.
"%#￥amp;amp;*#￥￥%"
After reading it, Manuel I couldn't help but cursed almost all the Spaniards, from the king to the common people, without any concern that the current king of Spain was his father-in-law (now
Princess Isabella, the eldest daughter of the Spanish kings, married Manuel I's nephew. As a result, his nephew died, so he found a way to marry Isabella. After Isabella died, her sister Maria
Maria married Manuel I again. After Maria's death, Maria's sister Juana's daughter Elio Reno married Manuel I again. It was very confusing).
The anger is understandable.
Sao Tome Island is an important colony for Portugal to colonize West Africa, but what is even more infuriating is that Spain attacked the Portuguese fleet from behind, directly destroying the fleet that Portugal had assembled with all the efforts of the country. It can be said that the backbone of the Portuguese was instantly destroyed.
Interrupted.
However, Manuel I had not yet made any decision in anger.
Another minister hurriedly came to Manuel I's side and said: "Your Majesty, something big has happened~"
"The news just came that the Japanese from the East brazenly sent troops to invade our Portuguese cities of Lagos and Luanda, took away our two most important colonial sites in West Africa, and sold all the Portuguese in our colonies as slaves.
Gave it to the people of Ming Dynasty."
"What?"
When Manuel I heard this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes in disbelief.
The Japanese actually attacked Portugal at this time. Forgetting they had robbed São Tomé Island earlier, they now came to rob Lagos and Andal. This was to force Portugal to its death.
