AHC: Jewish São Tomé e Príncipe

São Tomé and Príncipe are a pair of islands about 150 miles off the coast of Gabon, which were uninhabited when discovered by Portugal in the 1470s. In 1493, Álvaro de Caminha received a charter to settle São Tomé and establish sugar plantations there. There were, as may be expected, few volunteers to settle on a fever-ridden equatorial island, so the Portuguese crown deported several thousand Jewish children whose parents were either unable to pay the head tax or refused to do so. Most of these children died soon after arrival, but hundreds of them survived and married into the slave population that was brought from the African mainland to work the sugar plantations. Reports from the Inquisition indicate that some São Tomese were practicing Judaism as late as the 18th century, and many of the mestizos who are a majority in São Tomé today may have Jewish blood.

The challenge is to make the Jewish community of São Tomé and Príncipe last to the modern day, which would obviously require a colonial power that doesn't suppress Judaism. One possibility might be the islands coming under English control during the period when Portugal and Spain were in personal union and the Anglo-Portuguese alliance was broken; Jews were still expelled from England at that time, but they probably wouldn't be too concerned about a few Jews living in a remote colony. Once Cromwell lets the Sephardic Jews back in (assuming no butterflies that would forestall or change the result of the Civil War), they might then send aid to their São Tomé coreligionists.

Or for a more offbeat possibility, maybe the sugar plantations could fail shortly after their establishment, causing Portugal to abandon the islands with the Jews and African slaves still on them. After that, rather than becoming a transshipment point for slaves as in OTL, São Tomé could be left alone for a couple of centuries until some other power takes an interest. By that time, a mestizo Jewish population could be well entrenched, although the isolation will have changed their beliefs and practices in unpredictable ways. (I'm assuming that some of the older children were sufficiently literate and educated to pass on the basics of Jewish tradition, given that some cultural transmission did happen in OTL, but a great deal would be changed or lost over that time scale, not to mention that the São Tomese Jews would be unaware of developments in Judaism elsewhere).

Anyone care to expand on either of these possibilities? Other ideas? Knock-on effects?

How about the Portuguese Inquisition. Portugal expels the Sephardic Jews and Conversos to the islands. Either they use the jews instead of slaves to work the plantations or just keep the jews in exile and leave them to there own devices.

A Nazi Victory TL where Himmler suggests a Sao Tome and Principle Plan instead of a Madagascar Plan?

EternalCynic said:

A Nazi Victory TL where Himmler suggests a Sao Tome and Principle Plan instead of a Madagascar Plan?

Click to expand...

That works. Or just OTL where the Portuguese allow Jewish refugees in the 1936-1940 time frame.

Or a WW1 win where Germany gets the islands might work. Ottomans prevent most Jews from moving to Palestine and Germany offers some of them a second home.

Or the Spanish just expel their Jews to Sao Tome about 1492.

I was thinking more along the lines of preserving or expanding the original, 16th-century Jewish community than a Nazi-era POD, and in any event, São Tomé e Príncipe isn't nearly big enough to hold all the Jews the Nazis would want to deport. The current population of the country is 179,506 and its land area is 372 square miles. An influx of millions, or even hundreds of thousands, of Jews isn't on the cards - although, on the other hand, it would only take about 60,000 refugees admitted by Portugal during the 1930s to give the islands a Jewish majority.

Some of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 did go to São Tomé, albeit indirectly - the Jewish children deported to São Tomé no doubt included a few who had been born in Spain and who had fled with their parents to Portugal. I don't think Spain would send Jews directly there, though - why would they want to settle a Portuguese island at their own expense?

I still like the idea of the colony being abandoned - for instance, if the sugar-cane plants brought in to start the plantation are infected with red rot (see here) and Caminha writes the settlement off as a bad job. As for the slaves and Jews who were brought to the island in the meantime, who cares about them?

Alternatively, Zaitsev's idea might work - rather than a one-off deportation, exile to São Tomé could become the penalty for anyone caught practicing Judaism in Portugal. The Jews would work as slaves in the plantations (alongside the African slaves) and would have to stay in the colony after their term of service ended. Those who managed to stay Jewish would intermarry with the Africans, resulting in a hybrid Judaism, although not as weird a mixture as would happen in isolation.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

Alternatively, Zaitsev's idea might work - rather than a one-off deportation, exile to São Tomé could become the penalty for anyone caught practicing Judaism in Portugal. The Jews would work as slaves in the plantations (alongside the African slaves) and would have to stay in the colony after their term of service ended. Those who managed to stay Jewish would intermarry with the Africans, resulting in a hybrid Judaism, although not as weird a mixture as would happen in isolation.

Click to expand...

I still think you're going to need a POD that provides the Portuguese with some kind of incentive to pursue that plan...

How about this: Early on in the colony's history some slaves begin planning a revolt against their Portuguese masters. However this revolt is then betrayed by one of the older Jewish children who the rebels had ill advisedly brought into their confidence. The Jewish slave then proceeds to betray the revolt but at the same time manages to buy some concessions for the remaining Jewish slaves on the islands, namely that instead of being slaves they now become indentured servants.

The governor agrees and becomes fond of the idea of Jewish indentured servants as a means to control the rest of the slave population on the islands. He sends some letters back to Portugal encouraging developments along these lines, but only in São Tomé does it catch on. Meanwhile Jews begin to be deported to the islands as indentured servants and after some time, a free Jewish community takes shape on the islands. As sugarcane becomes less valuable, the Jews are the ones to branch out into agriculture earlier and become quite good at it inviting other persecuted Jews to flee Europe and join them on their communal farms...

I like the idea...

Instead of this outrageous genocidal/infanticidal Jewish settlement of São Tomé, we could have seen some more serious settlement attempts using [primarily adult] Jews to populate selected parts of the empire. By the time they were expelled from the Kingdom in 1497 (when the king married a daughter of the Catholic Kings) we could have seen São Tomé placed as a safe haven within the empire that has very few ground to irritate the king's parents-in-law.

And one thing about the Inquisition that is useful to know is that it's not actually a crime to practise the Jewish faith: it is only a crime if they are baptized as Christians and covertly practise Judaism. So, if São Tomé has a thriving openly Jewish population, even if the Portuguese Inquisition is established as IOTL (1536), they'll have no legal ground to go after São Tomé's Jews...

Unless if any random later king decides to expel them from São Tomé too, of course... But if they provide a steady income to the crown - and since they're too far and thus not sufficiently "in-your-face" to annoy the bigots in Lisbon - they might avoid this.

A Jewish São Tomé could be possible if instead of expelling the Jews from Portugal they are encoraged to migrate to the colonies. But probably we end up with not just São Tomé but other colonies having a Jew Majority.

alex costa said:

A Jewish São Tomé could be possible if instead of expelling the Jews from Portugal they are encoraged to migrate to the colonies. But probably we end up with not just São Tomé but other colonies having a Jew Majority.

Click to expand...

Yes, we could end up with more than one Portuguese colony with a Jewish majority but I doubt any king would grant free movement to Jews in every little piece of the Empire. The Expansion of the Faith was an enterprise taken very seriously by the Portuguese authorities as it was a very important ideological aspect of the Empire.
Hence São Tomé would probably be an exception - even if not necessarily the only one.

miguelrj said:

Yes, we could end up with more than one Portuguese colony with a Jewish majority but I doubt any king would grant free movement to Jews in every little piece of the Empire. The Expansion of the Faith was an enterprise taken very seriously by the Portuguese authorities as it was a very important ideological aspect of the Empire.
Hence São Tomé would probably be an exception - even if not necessarily the only one.

Click to expand...

Maybe Cabo Verde could also have a Jewish majority in this tl as well as maybe Timor

miguelrj said:

Instead of this outrageous genocidal/infanticidal Jewish settlement of São Tomé, we could have seen some more serious settlement attempts using [primarily adult] Jews to populate selected parts of the empire. By the time they were expelled from the Kingdom in 1497 (when the king married a daughter of the Catholic Kings) we could have seen São Tomé placed as a safe haven within the empire that has very few ground to irritate the king's parents-in-law.

Click to expand...

This would require an earlier settlement of São Tomé - Caminha's charter was granted in 1493 but the settlement project didn't begin until after 1497. I don't think that's impossible - the island was discovered around 1470 and someone might have got the idea to set up sugar plantations there during the 1470s-80s. But where would the Jews come from?

I've got it - maybe the Spanish Reconquista could end a few years earlier, if Ferdinand and Isabella unite the Spanish monarchy in 1475 rather than 1479 (Ferdinand's father dies younger) and make the Granada war a priority from the beginning of their reign. So Granada is conquered in 1482 rather than 1492, and the jews are promptly expelled from Spain (it's no coincidence that both the OTL triumph of the Reconquista and the Jewish expulsion occurred in 1492) with many of them going to Portugal. The Portuguese king doesn't want to expel the Jews from the kingdom, but also doesn't want the social and commercial disruption that would come from so many new Jewish merchants, so he gets the idea to grant the jews some land on São Tomé where they can grow sugar and trade with the mainland Africans. Many of the Jews who choose to go will still perish from the climate but those who survive will become the foundation of a long-lasting community. Their Judaism will, of course, be much more conventional than a "Lord of the Flies" country of abandoned children and slaves would be.

miguelrj said:

And one thing about the Inquisition that is useful to know is that it's not actually a crime to practise the Jewish faith: it is only a crime if they are baptized as Christians and covertly practise Judaism. So, if São Tomé has a thriving openly Jewish population, even if the Portuguese Inquisition is established as IOTL (1536), they'll have no legal ground to go after São Tomé's Jews...

Click to expand...

I'm aware of this. The Jewish children who were sent to São Tomé in OTL were baptized, so they fell under the Inquisition's jurisdiction once it was established (although I'm not sure if their children were baptized). In your scenario, though, the Jews on the island would never have converted and would thus be outside the Inquisition's power.

miguelrj said:

Unless if any random later king decides to expel them from São Tomé too, of course... But if they provide a steady income to the crown - and since they're too far and thus not sufficiently "in-your-face" to annoy the bigots in Lisbon - they might avoid this.

Click to expand...

That was the logic by which Jews were able to stay in many medieval kingdoms - "the crown needs their taxes." In someplace as small and far off as São Tomé, this would probably be enough for them to last until things got more tolerant.

alex costa said:

Maybe Cabo Verde could also have a Jewish majority in this tl as well as maybe Timor

Click to expand...

There were Jews on Cabo Verde in OTL, so more settlement might easily have been possible. I'd expect that the Jews would be kept out of the large colonies like Brazil and Angola, and that the settlement would mostly be on small islands where commerce was important. Hmmm, what about the Azores? The Jews of the Azores OTL date from the 19th century, could they arrive in the 15th in this scenario?

Jonathan Edelstein said:

This would require an earlier settlement of São Tomé - Caminha's charter was granted in 1493 but the settlement project didn't begin until after 1497.

Click to expand...

I was thinking on a 1497 PoD. King Manuel I still expels the Jews from the Kingdom but does hint that Jews - albeit unable to set foot on the Kingdom proper - will be allowed to settle elsewhere in the Empire. This may reshape Caminha's Lord-of-the-Flies-esque project to a legitim one where a number of adult Jews actually volunteer.

miguelrj said:

I was thinking on a 1497 PoD. King Manuel I still expels the Jews from the Kingdom but does hint that Jews - albeit unable to set foot on the Kingdom proper - will be allowed to settle elsewhere in the Empire. This may reshape Caminha's Lord-of-the-Flies-esque project to a legitim one where a number of adult Jews actually volunteer.

Click to expand...

OK, I see. Maybe a 1493 POD would work better, though, for the following reason.

I've done a little further research and realize that I was wrong about the date of the deportation in OTL. I had originally thought it occurred around 1500, but the chronicles of Dom João II (cited here) indicate that it did happen in 1493. What took place was that most of the Jews expelled from Portugal in 1492 were granted eight months' residency upon payment of a tax, but at the end of the eight months there was no shipping to take them to other countries. Few could pay the heavy fee required for permanent residency; thus, the children were declared slaves and sent to São Tomé. When Manuel came to the throne, he restored the freedom of the enslaved Jews, but those on São Tomé stayed there.

Let's say, then, that the children get a reprieve in 1493. This could be because João dies earlier, or because he agrees to let the Jews stay for another couple of years in return for a large monetary payment by the richest Jews. In this case, the colonization of São Tomé could begin under Manuel, who would use free Jewish adults. Then, in 1497, he could "forget" to expel the Jews from the island colonies of the empire, and hint that anyone who volunteered to go there wouldn't have to be baptized. The Jews would be out of sight and out of mind, but would still produce taxes for the crown through sugar cultivation and trade.

Actually, depending on how many islands are left out of the expulsion decree, this could raise some other interesting possibilities. Zanzibar became Portuguese in 1505 OTL, and I don't see that changing in this timeline. If some Jews make it all the way over there, then a Jewish merchant/agricultural community might develop along the Swahili coast, which would continue after the Omanis conquer the Portuguese holdings in East Africa. The presence of semi-indigenous Jews could make colonialism in that region very interesting.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

What took place was that most of the Jews expelled from Portugal in 1492 were granted eight months' residency upon payment of a tax

Click to expand...

You meant the Jews expelled from Spain that ended up in Portugal, right?

Jonathan Edelstein said:

Let's say, then, that the children get a reprieve in 1493. This could be because João dies earlier, or because he agrees to let the Jews stay for another couple of years in return for a large monetary payment by the richest Jews. In this case, the colonization of São Tomé could begin under Manuel, who would use free Jewish adults. Then, in 1497, he could "forget" to expel the Jews from the island colonies of the empire, and hint that anyone who volunteered to go there wouldn't have to be baptized. The Jews would be out of sight and out of mind, but would still produce taxes for the crown through sugar cultivation and trade.

Click to expand...

Sounds perfect.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

Actually, depending on how many islands are left out of the expulsion decree, this could raise some other interesting possibilities. Zanzibar became Portuguese in 1505 OTL, and I don't see that changing in this timeline. If some Jews make it all the way over there, then a Jewish merchant/agricultural community might develop along the Swahili coast, which would continue after the Omanis conquer the Portuguese holdings in East Africa. The presence of semi-indigenous Jews could make colonialism in that region very interesting.

Click to expand...

It looks like an interesting scenario albeit one must notice that once the Jews are expelled/forcefully converted in 1497, the available population of openly Jews in the Portuguese Empire will be rather limited. Only those that have already moved to São Tomé or elsewhere overseas in 1497 are really eligible to move to Zanzibar. Even before the establishment of the Inquisition, I don't see New Christians deciding to move to Zanzibar and once they move there, they come out as Jewish. Such situation would hardly be tolerated by the authorities.

That sounds like a very sound POD.

A more Jewish São Tomé and Príncipe would be a big deal, because those islands along with Fernado Po were basically the proving ground of the sugar and slave formula that proved immensely successful in the Caribbean. I think that if São Tomé and Príncipe are as successful as they were for the crown, there would be increasingly a call for the Jews to be kicked out of the islands. If the Portuguese don't kick them out, it is likely the Spanish would. After all the Spanish were quite jealous of the Portuguese success in Africa. The Pope took action to divide the world precisely because he didn't want the Spanish and Portuguese to be fighting each other rather than spreading the Religion. But if the Spanish can point to a rich Jewish island and insinuate that the Jews are trading guns and iron to pagans or muslims then they might have the go ahead to take those islands.

This is a good article about this topic. I've read that even a couple Jewish vessels from Flanders were found to be trading with Jewish merchants off the coast of Africa. But I do think that like all emerging markets there is a time of wild free trading before the authorities crack down. Jewish activities in West Africa seem to resemble that, and the authorities of Iberia have a proven record of brutality and effectiveness when it comes to Inquisition.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

The challenge is to make the Jewish community of São Tomé and Príncipe last to the modern day, which would obviously require a colonial power that doesn't suppress Judaism. One possibility might be the islands coming under English control during the period when Portugal and Spain were in personal union and the Anglo-Portuguese alliance was broken; Jews were still expelled from England at that time, but they probably wouldn't be too concerned about a few Jews living in a remote colony.

Click to expand...

Given the Jewish presence in Dutch Recife and New Amsterdam, surely they are the better candidates?

miguelrj said:

You meant the Jews expelled from Spain that ended up in Portugal, right?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I did.

miguelrj said:

It looks like an interesting scenario albeit one must notice that once the Jews are expelled/forcefully converted in 1497, the available population of openly Jews in the Portuguese Empire will be rather limited. Only those that have already moved to São Tomé or elsewhere overseas in 1497 are really eligible to move to Zanzibar. Even before the establishment of the Inquisition, I don't see New Christians deciding to move to Zanzibar and once they move there, they come out as Jewish. Such situation would hardly be tolerated by the authorities.

Click to expand...

Fair point. Any chance of having Zanzibar fall into Portuguese hands before 1497 - say, if Dias finds the route to India in 1488 rather than turning around at South Africa?

Tobit said:

A more Jewish São Tomé and Príncipe would be a big deal, because those islands along with Fernado Po were basically the proving ground of the sugar and slave formula that proved immensely successful in the Caribbean. I think that if São Tomé and Príncipe are as successful as they were for the crown, there would be increasingly a call for the Jews to be kicked out of the islands. If the Portuguese don't kick them out, it is likely the Spanish would. After all the Spanish were quite jealous of the Portuguese success in Africa. The Pope took action to divide the world precisely because he didn't want the Spanish and Portuguese to be fighting each other rather than spreading the Religion. But if the Spanish can point to a rich Jewish island and insinuate that the Jews are trading guns and iron to pagans or muslims then they might have the go ahead to take those islands.

Click to expand...

I doubt Spain would be able to take São Tomé from Portugal without a fight, and they'd have a hard time winning the fight against the Portuguese navy of the time. On the other hand, I could see some Portuguese nobles urging the king to push the Jews aside so they could get the sugar and slave-trading wealth for themselves. The question is whether the king would support the Jews, who would be working directly for him, or give in to the nobles. According to the article you cite, the crown imposed a royal monopoly on trading in Cabo Verde, and some Jews were able to function under royal license during the 16th and 17th centuries. I don't see why this couldn't also happen on São Tomé, although as the island became more integrated into the Portuguese administration and legal system, the Jews might have to accept some civil disabilities.

The other possibility is that pressure for expulsion does happen, but the English (or, as Faeelin suggests, the Dutch) seize São Tomé in the later 16th century and give the Jewish community a new lease on life.

Faeelin said:

Given the Jewish presence in Dutch Recife and New Amsterdam, surely they are the better candidates?

Click to expand...

Also a fair point. Given that the Dutch got kicked out of both Recife and New Amsterdam in fairly short order, though, how much staying power would they have in São Tomé? The English seem more likely to be able to hold on for the long term.

Jonathan Edelstein said:

Fair point. Any chance of having Zanzibar fall into Portuguese hands before 1497 - say, if Dias finds the route to India in 1488 rather than turning around at South Africa?

Click to expand...

Sure! I read somewhere that after Dias crossed the Cape of Good Hope he wanted to carry on all the way to India but the crew didn't feel the same. I can't remember where I read it or if this is trustworthy but in any case the decade-long gap between the trips of Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama shouldn't be a fatality: we can easily imagine an expedition to India being organized in the early 1490s.

Furthermore we can always find ways to delay the expulsion of the Jews. Princess Isabel died in 1498 IOTL. Had she died a little earlier, king Manuel is still likely to marry a Spanish princess and expel the Jews but the process will be delayed.

alex costa said:

Maybe Cabo Verde could also have a Jewish majority in this tl as well as maybe Timor

Click to expand...

The Church was extremely active in East Timor and would not have taken kindly to incursions of a non-Christian variety on their designated selections.

And... assuming OTL (you really don't change much outside of Portugal's Jewish policies with something like this), the Javanese are going to put any such community through a meatgrinder in the 70's.

HeavyWeaponsGuy said:

The Church was extremely active in East Timor and would not have taken kindly to incursions of a non-Christian variety on their designated selections.

And... assuming OTL (you really don't change much outside of Portugal's Jewish policies with something like this), the Javanese are going to put any such community through a meatgrinder in the 70's.

Click to expand...

First, activity of the Church in East Timor and surrounding areas, while surely very significant later, wasn't that much in early 16th century.
Ironically, a good number of the missionaries in the area were actually of marrano families. People of Jewish ancestry, both from Iberia and Low Countries, were around. However, there no evidence to my knowledge of practice of Judaism among them. The Church was actually too far to enforce much (heck, they could not enforce the use of Latin in the rites) but surely would not be thrilled at idea of a group of Jews in the neighborhood.