Se Deus quiser, há-de brilhar! - Uma História do Império Português (Updated 03/18)

Gabingston

Kicked
Yes since there will be no treaty preventing Portuguese to just the eastern most part continent.
Although I have a hard time seeing tiny Portugal colonizing an entire continent, they were lucky that they got all of Brazil IOTL, considering that the French, Dutch and Spanish were all nipping at their heel at different points in time.
 
Yes since there will be no treaty preventing Portuguese to just the eastern most part continent.

Not only that. They are 3x larger than in OTL, have Canary Islands and will have (after Grenada is taken) Gulf of Cadiz, that will prevent Castille from big meddling, other powers will mostly concentrate on North America and Carribean because of prevailing winds and sea currents.
 
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Philip

Donor
secound expedition establish fort near Tallahassee and he sails south along coast till reach keys. He reached Cuba and sails East reaches Bahamas / kaikos island before sailing to France

I know I'm late to the party, but I don't think Tallahassee is the location you want. Tallahassee is in the Florida Panhandle near the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe you want Jacksonville (Fort Caroline/San Mateo) or St Augustine?
 
I think that Portugal here has the potential to colonise the whole South America, not just Brazil.

Yes since there will be no treaty preventing Portuguese to just the eastern most part continent.

Although I have a hard time seeing tiny Portugal colonizing an entire continent, they were lucky that they got all of Brazil IOTL, considering that the French, Dutch and Spanish were all nipping at their heel at different points in time.

Not only that. They are 3x larger than in OTL, have Canary Islands and will have (after Grenada is taken) Gulf of Cadiz, that will prevent Castille from big meddling, other powers will mostly concentrate on North America and Carribean because of prevailing winds and sea currents.

Portugal won't control all of South America (Cabralia TTL after Pedro Cabral, the discoverer of Brazil), but it will become the dominant power there, with not only a bigger Brazil but also having the Inca Empire in their sphere of influence.

The Portuguese could probably interact with the Incas around the 1530s-1540s with both Francisco Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana making a lucky expedition sponsored by the Portuguese king across the Amazon to Cuzco, where they meet the Sapa Inca, Ninan Cuyochi (who will survive TTL, thereby butterflying the Inca Civil War) and make trade deals. Ninan Cuyochi's son will convert to Catholicism due to Jesuit efforts and syncretize his Catholic faith with the Incan religion, and propel on pulling a very early Meiji in Tawantinsuyu with the Portuguese providing aid and technology, and giving the Portuguese a concession in Callao as a port for TTL's Manila Galleons (Tondo Galleons).

In addition, Cabralia could be divided among Portugal (Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentinian Mesopotamia, perhaps parts of the Argentinian pampas up to the Salado river, Bolivian Lowlands, the Guyanas), England (Patagonia), a surviving Inca Empire, a successful Klein-Venedig in Venezuela (which could probably be an Austrian or Dutch colony), and perhaps either Scotland, the Netherlands or France in Colombia.
 

Lusitania

Donor
Remember that in the early 16th century the Portuguese empire power was the Indian Ocean trade. The Brazil trade only came after. Iotl the Spanish fortune was not in plantations or trade with the natives but in the treasure it was able to plunder from both Inca and Aztec.
 
Remember that in the early 16th century the Portuguese empire power was the Indian Ocean trade. The Brazil trade only came after. Iotl the Spanish fortune was not in plantations or trade with the natives but in the treasure it was able to plunder from both Inca and Aztec.

Obviously the Portuguese are not going to plunder anything from the Incas. From what I have heard, the Portuguese have little interest in Brazil after Cabral's discovery in 1500 due to the Indian trade. What would be the best possible case for Luso-Incan relations in the 16th century since the Spanish (Castilian) Empire is smaller than OTL? What would it take for the Incas to become a Kongo analogue in South America?

@kasumigenx you've written a few posts about the Portuguese vassalizing the Incas, I would like to hear any input about it too.
 
Obviously the Portuguese are not going to plunder anything from the Incas. From what I have heard, the Portuguese have little interest in Brazil after Cabral's discovery in 1500 due to the Indian trade. What would be the best possible case for Luso-Incan relations in the 16th century since the Spanish (Castilian) Empire is smaller than OTL? What would it take for the Incas to become a Kongo analogue in South America?

@kasumigenx you've written a few posts about the Portuguese vassalizing the Incas, I would like to hear any input about it too.
That is a possibility since they had made african kingdoms their vassals.
 
Chapter 6 - The rise of Portuguese manufacturing
Chapter 6 - The rise of Portuguese manufacturing
Note: This is the longest chapter I have written for this TL so far. Researching about the early Portuguese manufacturing industry OTL was a bit of a challenge, since the main source for most of this chapter is from the Cambridge University Press book "An Economic History of Portugal, 1143–2010" by Leonor Freire Costa, Pedro Lains, and Susana Münch Miranda, as well as some sources in Wikipedia both in English and Portuguese, with TTL's economic development in Portugal, as well as in Galicia and Leon taken in consideration. As always, any constructive criticism and feedback is welcome.

As Europe began to enter the age of the Renaissance, industrial output has improved in part due to rising demand in urban areas and a larger labor pool, as well as money and raw materials. In addition, new trade routes and maritime expansion led to new opportunities in the shipbuilding and shipping industries. Portugal was obviously no exception to the rising tide.

In the transition, industrial work is no longer exclusive to self-consumption production, but the rising demands in urban and supra-regional markets led to a start in the rise of manufacturing. The emergence of such industries was in part due to the coordination of labor by agents who had knowledge on regional markets. The process goes by providing a given output to the producers, and providing raw materials, thereby selling the finished goods across up to the international level.

The spread of the method of industrial work impacted the peasant economy, in which the production of raw materials for the regional market had been a secondary use of labor. The involvement of peasants in the industry, propelled by decreasing returns in farming turned rural handicrafts into a source of income, signaling a change in the rural areas. The term for the changes in the rural industry became known as the putting-out system, in which the merchants loaned raw materials to rural workers who processed the product and deliver the finished goods to the former.

- The textile industry -

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Towns such as Corunha in Galiza and Badajoz in Leão would eventually provide greater output in textiles than ever before for Portugal
Linen production, as well as the spinning and weaving of was a common practice in Portugal, especially in the northern regions like Minho and Beira. The success of the industry was embraced by the entire population stemmed from the widespread use of linen cloth for making clothes and household linens.

In Minho, the linen production intensified in the first decades of the 16th century, and with a dense population that provided a stable labor supply, it spawned a strong rural-based production in which the surpluses flowed to foreign markets in the ports of Viana do Castelo and Vila do Conde. The regional centers for the textile industry were Braga and Guimarães, where the latter was able to produce 250,000 varas [1], due to in part by royal intervention and the construction of several linen factories that are funded and owned by the crown. Linen production in Minho was rooted in very small plots of land, which did not provide enough revenue for the needs of peasant households. The insufficient income, as well as increasing demands for sailcloth from the shipbuilding industry and reasonable communication by sea and river routes generated a lot of income for the linen industry for the centuries ahead. Besides Minho, other parts of Portugal like Beira and the area around Corunha in Galiza also developed the production of linen. Spinning and weaving was the labor of women, mostly widows, spinsters and some slaves from West and North Africa from the slave raids, who work until they were able to earn their freedom.

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A herd of Merino sheep

For similar reasons, the manufacture of woolens was also prevalent across Portugal. In good pasturing grounds to raise sheep, home weavers manufacture woolen fabrics for a wide range of clothes from coats to hats. The domestic production displayed high levels in some areas of the country, mostly in a strip in the interior from the northern part of Beira Baixa to Baixo Alentejo, areas near Portuguese-Leonese border in towns such as Arronches, Portalegre and Castelo de Vide and around the Serra da Estrela mountain range. In the southern part of Leão, Merino sheep are known for having some of the softest and finest wool of any sheep in the Iberian Peninsula. Under João II’s reign, the production of Merino wool was patronized by the crown and the breed became instrumental in Portugal’s economic development, and held a huge monopoly over its domestic wool trade. Urban workshops in Covilhã, Portalegre, Badajoz, Zamora and Cáceres supervised the rural-based woolen production, creating a wool boom that Portugal would experience in the 16th century.

Under the putting-out system, rural manufacturers delivered the raw materials and the urban workshops specialize in the finishing touches, using more sophisticated techniques such as dyeing and stamping. Through the influence of the merchants and artisans in the rural areas, the influence of the cities extended out to the countryside. During the Renaissance era, this trend accelerated from wool for fine clothes to ropes for naval use. The first phase of fiber production took place around the towns of Moncorvo, Santarém and Ferrol in Galiza, with the final products finished in the cordoarias [2] in Lisboa and Corunha.

Silk production in Portugal was very minor at first due to a shortage in highly specialized labor in towns. The industry was concentrated in the Trás-os-Montes region since the 13th century and began to surge a century later with new mulberry trees planted, with Bragança becoming the main center of Portuguese silk production. The expulsion of Jews from Sicily in 1494 [3], as well as bringing in some of Portugal’s existing Jewish population led to a boost of the transformation of silk in the region. Silk was also produced in Évora, Lamego, Lisboa, Porto and Corunha. Silk was sent off to urban centers, with Porto and Corunha attracting some of the production from Trás-os-Montes, although most of them went to Lisboa.

From the second half of the 16th century, the Portuguese textile industry would branch out into the spinning and weaving of cotton. By the 18th century, the crop’s rise to global importance became prominent in Europe’s cultural shift and played a role in Portugal’s status as a global empire. The spinning and weaving of cotton was dependent on importing the raw material where it was prevalent like Cape Verde, Brazil and later on, India and Terrastralia. Cotton working was centered in the towns of Lamego and Tomar [4] on the Douro and Tagus rivers, respectively, since they were the traditional centers in production of linen cloth where capital and labor were available. The two centers were critical since the cotton fiber arrived by sea and the finished products went to market by river transportation.

- Diversification -
Other than the textile industry, other sectors played a major role in developing Portugal’s early modern industry. Leather working was extensive and far reaching with specialized workshops across the country and created a myriad of specialized workshops in urban centers, which produced footwear, clothing, furniture upholstery and much more practical uses. Ceramics and pottery making was also extremely common in regions abundant in clay and appropriate minerals such as parts of Beira, Alentejo and Estremadura. Numerous kiln operations in Lisboa and in the Algarve made construction materials for buildings from clay such as roof tiles and bricks, as well as small local ateliers in the rural area for ceramic household items.

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The glass museum in Marinha Grande, in the site of the former location of the glass factory

Glassmaking did have a presence in Portugal, but this sector depended on the use of equipment and specialized labor. Sources do record some artisan glassblowers as early as the 15th century, mostly working in Lisboa and Santarém, although the most important factories were found in Coina in the outskirts of Lisboa and Oliveira de Azeméis, not far from Porto. However, during the initial period, the quality of glass was low due to the royal decree that limited the industry’s growth due to demand for oak and cork oak wood for ship construction. Portuguese glassmaking would later see signs of growing in the mid-17th century when refugees from Bohemia settled in the town of Marinha Grande [5], where the glass manufacturing industry was established, and adapted their method of glassmaking, with wood from the pine forest used as fuel for the factories. The glass made in Marinha Grande is said to be by many as one of the best glasses not only in the Iberian Peninsula, but in Southern Europe as a whole after Venice due to the efforts of the Bohemian glassmakers.

Iron-working also made a presence in Portugal, as in elsewhere in Europe, it responded to technological constraints and depended on natural mineral deposits. Although there was very little of the metallurgical industry to speak of in the early modern period until the late 18th century, the Portuguese victory in the Castilian Succession War as well as the incorporation of Huelva in 1483 granted the country more numerous iron deposits in its newly gained territories of Galiza and Leão. Small ironmonger workshops by blacksmiths and horseshoers existed since medieval times, with the presence of more iron in the new territories being a boon for the ironmaking industry.

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The Rio Tinto river. The river gets its name from centuries of ore mining, making it very acidic and creating a deep reddish hue due to the iron dissolved in the water.

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The São Domingos Mine in Alentejo, now abandoned, left a mark in the changing Portuguese mining industry since the Renaissance.

In addition, the incorporation of Huelva was beneficial for Portugal as it turned out that the region is rich in minerals with numerous deposits of copper, silver, gold, iron and manganese, mostly around the Rio Tinto. The river area has a history of mining since the ancient times by the Tartessians, Iberians, Phoenecians ,Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and Moors. After a period of abandonment in the Middle Ages, the mines were rediscovered in 1507 [6] and the Portuguese government began operating them immediately after it happened. Mining also took place across the Iberian Pyrite Belt around the same time, with the mines being revitalized, mainly producing pyrite. Catholic Swiss and German miners, mostly from the Rhineland, as well as some from Bavaria would eventually settle in Alentejo (between the towns of Aljustrel and Mértola) as well in around Huelva and the Rio Tinto in between the late 16th and early 17th centuries to escape the devastation in the region following the sectarian conflicts that plagued Central Europe around that time, further increasing the mining output. The two aforementioned towns of Aljustrel and Mértola would become part of a larger mining transportation route across the Pyrite Belt to Huelva.

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The entrance to the former royal weapons and armament factory in Barcarena

The Portuguese arms industry also made a quick start under João II’s reign. After the Castilian Succession War, one of Afonso V’s last accomplishments was to establish a royal weapons factory in the outskirts of Lisboa in Barcarena to supply weapons for a new standing army for Portugal. Under his successor, a foundry and an armament factory was also established on the site in 1512 [7], producing gunpowder and guns. The latter factory would also be the first to make use of hydraulic power in Portugal, thanks to a stable supply of copper and other minerals after the revitalization of the Pyrite Belt and Rio Tinto.

[1] A variable unit of measure equal to 1 meter. OTL, in the early 16th century, 100,000 varas of linen were produced, but the intervention João II made doubled the production TTL.
[2] Royal rope factories
[3] This took place under the reign of Isabel (the OTL Isabella of Castille), who is still ruling Sicily at the time. This is similar to the OTL Alhambra Decrees but on a smaller scale. Jews were expelled from Sicily as part of the Crown of Aragon in 1493 OTL.
[4] These two towns could potentially become prominent later in the 19th century in the same vein as Manchester and Birmingham in the UK OTL and will become one of the starting points of TTL’s Industrial Revolution in Southern Europe, but it’s too early to tell.
[5] OTL Marinha Grande’s glass industry was established in the mid-18th century by English entrepreneur William Stephens under the patronage of the Marquis de Pombal.
[6] The mines were rediscovered in 1556 and operated again by the Spanish government in 1724 OTL.
[7] The weapons factory in Barcarena would be established in around 1540 OTL. Due to a lack of resources and the Pyrite Belt not being mined at the time, the output of arms-making was not enough to keep up with the demand and the Portuguese have to import artillery from Flanders and Germany.
 
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Lusitania

Donor
Very good development. What the country needs though was something that was very difficult to accomplish in catholic countries; a formal banking system. While banks existed in Italian cities and would eventually spread into Northern Europe Catholic Church was very much against interest and fees charged.

due to restrictions on Jews ability to own property one area they got involved was in lending. If crown was able to persuade one or twoI Italian families to setup branches in Portugal maybe with Jewish partners it would provide substantial benefit to Portuguese merchants.

another area of interest could be insurance. The Portuguese had been running and insurance program setup by the crown in the 14th century to insure boats. we could have a expanded program like Lloyd of London in Portugal to provide insurance to the traders and businessmen.

lastly we could have a rudimentary stock market starting to operate on Porto and Lisbon. It could simply be people pooling their resources $$ in ships and enterprises (companies). Be at the time very rudimentary but over time develop into a proper stockmarket.

PS with Jewish presence remaining in Portugal during the 16th century you can have an expulsion in Castile which would benefit the Portuguese, another expulsion could be refugees from Ottoman conquest. Sort of like Portuguese welcome one set of refugees. Some settle in cities but farmers are sent to unsettled areas of Iberian peninsula North Africa and even Atlantic islands. Example being the Byzantine refugees. Country sees benefit from them and decides to welcome more of them. Even goes as far as bringing poor or others from Italian peninsula, Ireland. Nothing big just few hundred or less a year. If country has open spaces for settlement it bring them in.

remember African slaves become an important part of many cities’ labor force since there just not enough people to work fields, business and trade clamoring for people.

lastly the patronage of both artists as well as artisans to setup shop in Portugal could lead to instrument makers, furniture or goods makers being lured to Portugal especially from Italian peninsula where talented novices might have a hard time establishing themselves in areas where established masters exists.

The expanding economy would place a great demand on craftsmen and government guidance to the various guilds to formalize and expand their apprenticeship programs.
 
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The Portuguese won't touch the Pagans in the Malay Archipelago, they converted the Muslims only, it is only the Castilians who do that, so the Muslim islands that they conquer would convert to Christianity.

I think Visayas is better under Castilian rule.
 
Very good development. What the country needs though was something that was very difficult to accomplish in catholic countries; a formal banking system. While banks existed in Italian cities and would eventually spread into Northern Europe Catholic Church was very much against interest and fees charged.

due to restrictions on Jews ability to own property one area they got involved was in lending. If crown was able to persuade one or twoI Italian families to setup branches in Portugal maybe with Jewish partners it would provide substantial benefit to Portuguese merchants.

another area of interest could be insurance. The Portuguese had been running and insurance program setup by the crown in the 14th century to insure boats. we could have a expanded program like Lloyd of London in Portugal to provide insurance to the traders and businessmen.

lastly we could have a rudimentary stock market starting to operate on Porto and Lisbon. It could simply be people pooling their resources $$ in ships and enterprises (companies). Be at the time very rudimentary but over time develop into a proper stockmarket.

PS with Jewish presence remaining in Portugal during the 16th century you can have an expulsion in Castile which would benefit the Portuguese, another expulsion could be refugees from Ottoman conquest. Sort of like Portuguese welcome one set of refugees. Some settle in cities but farmers are sent to unsettled areas of Iberian peninsula North Africa and even Atlantic islands. Example being the Byzantine refugees. Country sees benefit from them and decides to welcome more of them. Even goes as far as bringing poor or others from Italian peninsula, Ireland. Nothing big just few hundred or less a year. If country has open spaces for settlement it bring them in.

remember African slaves become an important part of many cities’ labor force since there just not enough people to work fields, business and trade clamoring for people.

lastly the patronage of both artists as well as artisans to setup shop in Portugal could lead to instrument makers, furniture or goods makers being lured to Portugal especially from Italian peninsula where talented novices might have a hard time establishing themselves in areas where established masters exists.

The expanding economy would place a great demand on craftsmen and government guidance to the various guilds to formalize and expand their apprenticeship programs.

There will be separate chapters coming soon about further diversification of the Portuguese economy, like shipbuilding and banking, as well as on slavery and the Portuguese Jews.

Since Portugal is developing even more than OTL, there will be incentives for Portugal to create a proper national bank centuries earlier (the OTL bank was created in 1846) by bringing in prominent Italian families (For this TL I'm going with the Simonetti and Gondi families, the former playing a prominent role in Florence and other Italian states like Lucca and the latter being prominent partners of the Medici family) and partnering with prominent Jewish merchants and bankers.

The insurance industry will become more of a thing as it would need to be developed to protect Portuguese trade, so I think by the late 16th or early 17th century, something like a rudimentary version of Lloyd's would be created.

A stock market similar to the one created in Amsterdam in 1602 OTL will be created later during the late Renaissance once the Portuguese get their feet wet in the Indian trade, have a strong foothold in the East Indies and maintain good relations with China and Japan.

TTL Portugal will take more Jewish refugees, mostly from the Ottoman Empire. I can see Greek scholars coming in to Portugal and making contributions to the Renaissance by bringing in their humanist perspectives and even translate some of the famous Greek works to Portuguese. Expect to see El Greco coming to Porto TTL. However, I don't see Castile expelling their Jewish population since it's now being ruled by a branch of the Avis family after the Castilian Succession War. Maybe an expulsion in Aragon (since it's still ruled by a Trastamara) might happen soon.

We already see German, Swiss and Bohemian settlers coming in a few centuries, we will see poor Italians coming in too, and perhaps Ireland (although for TTL the Reformation will be weaker since I intend to make England and Sweden Catholic, with the latter to be ruled by a Habsburg branch as TTL's Habsburg Spain analogue). Maybe persecuted Catholics from Scotland could settle in Portugal since I decided on keeping Scotland independent and becoming affected by the Reformation, but it might change.

African slaves will be working in many major sectors, and in TTL there will be more opportunities to become free than OTL, where opportunities for freedom are scarce. There will be opportunities for freed slaves and mixed-race mestiços to integrate into Portuguese society. Asian slaves (Chinese, Japanese and Javanese) will still be a thing TTL, but will have the same TTL opportunities as their African counterparts for freedom and integration, with the Asian slavery ending earlier than OTL in order to keep good relations with Ming China and the Oda Bakufu.

The idea about artists and artisans moving to set up shop in Portugal to establish themselves there is a great idea since this will be covered in a chapter about Portuguese art and culture soon.

What exactly is the PoD?

There are multiple PoDs in this timeline, but the most prominent one is the in the War of the Castilian Succession, where Portuguese and Castilian Juanistas win the Battle of Toro and Ferdinand of Aragon is slain, leading to an Avis/La Beltraneja victory. Another PoD is that João II reigns for 30 more years and his son Infante Afonso's horse-riding incident gets butterflied away.

The Portuguese won't touch the Pagans in the Malay Archipelago, they converted the Muslims only, it is only the Castilians who do that, so the Muslim islands that they conquer would convert to Christianity.

I think Visayas is better under Castilian rule.

The Philippines will still have a Catholic majority TTL, but I will make a compromise in Portuguese Luzon by having significant Pagan/Hindu minorities on the island. Also expect what is to be Indonesia OTL to be religiously diverse, from Catholics in Sunda, Bali and the Moluccas to Muslims in Sumatra.

I think the Portuguese can hold Visayas (and perhaps the Northern Moluccas and Celebes) for the first few decades and then sell it to Castile in order to prioritize on getting the fastest and shortest trade routes to East Asia.
 
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The Philippines will still have a Catholic majority TTL, but I will make a compromise in Portuguese Luzon by having significant Pagan/Hindu minorities on the island. Also expect what is to be Indonesia OTL to be religiously diverse, from Catholics in Sunda, Bali and the Moluccas to Muslims in Sumatra.
Hindus/Pagans will be the majority in Luzon since ITTL they only converted the Muslims in the lands that they conquered and East Timor remained majority Pagan, this means Luzon will remain majority Pagan as well with Catholics that are formerly Muslims on the Coast.
 
Hindus/Pagans will be the majority in Luzon since ITTL they only converted the Muslims in the lands that they conquered and East Timor remained majority Pagan, this means Luzon will remain majority Pagan as well with Catholics that are formerly Muslims on the Coast.

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I think for TTL the majority of the Catholics in Portuguese Luzon would most likely be in the denser areas (in light yellow) from the dense dots in Ilocos Norte to Batangas, while the rural, spare areas (in dark) would remain Pagan/Hindu. By the time the Portuguese establish relations with Oda Japan, Japanese Catholic communities would eventually form in major cities like Tondo, Binalatongan and Batangas and would eventually contribute to the spread of Catholicism there and eventually dominate Luzon's economy instead of the overseas Chinese population, which would be eventually restricted to Visayas.

What happened with Castille and Aragon? Are/will they be in some union?

Castile is currently ruled by La Beltraneja as Juana I, with her TTL son Prince Enrique becoming the heir to the throne. Aragon is currently ruled by Enrique I upon the death of Juan II in 1479. I am not ruling out the possibility of any later union between Castile and Aragon (although this might happen if the Castilian branch of House of Avis dies early and the Aragonese Trastamaras inherit the Kingdom at some point), in order maintain a reduced Spanish Empire.
 

Lusitania

Donor
The issue with Japan was that Portuguese Catholicism became greater than imperialism. So that Catholicism became a threat to the ruling Japanese class control of the people. Which led to the persecution of Catholics in japan. All catholic priests were hunted and killed and all Catholics attacks. Forcing the remaining ones to practice their religion in secret for decades.

This was a problem with Portuguese imperialism in all of India and Ásia. The colonial authorities and religious authorities were in many ways indistinguishable. Especially with the Sdvdnt of inquisition.

if inquisition is never integrated then Catholics could live alongside other religions within the Portuguese colonies.

At times spreading religion was more important than maintaining control or expanding the empire. When religious figures have greater influence over the administration of the colonies then you stop having political control over the colonies.

this was an issue in many other parts of the country even in metropolitan Portugal. Where the priest was regarded as more important and had greater control over a region than the appointed administrator. This resulted in priests fighting the implementation of government policy and forcing or influencing nobles and administrative people in spending public $ on religious infrastructure instead of public or economic infrastructure that would advance the colonies, county of areas economy.
 
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Footnote - Regarding Chapter 7
The next chapter will focus on the political changes with João II living longer TTL.

From the planning thread, while Manuel I was a good king for Portugal OTL, and reaching the empire at its extent, he did it as the expense of the nobles and the clergy regaining power (for example, pardoning the Braganças and restoring their estates), ignoring with power struggles, and perhaps indulging with the court too much with the money coming from the trade.

With Infante Afonso's death being butterflied and having a healthy son with Catherine of York (I'll name him Infante Duarte), these two successors to João II will have more humility and contribute more to developing Portugal more than OTL. With the expulsion of the Jews and free Muslims being butterflied and keeping the nobles like the Braganças in check, they will have time to bring in the ideas of the Renaissance and move towards a more capitalistic mindset, like the formation of insurances, the creation of an early stock market and taking in Byzantine refugees and small numbers of migrants from Italy, for example.
 
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