The de Avis dynasty was the major impulsor of the Portuguese Discoveries, started by D. João I’s son D. Duarte I, The philosopher-king, with the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa in 1415, for the profitable trade route that passed through that city. However, this conquest had little to no effect since local merchants changed their routes in order to minimize Portuguese profits.

This African oriented expansion was continued by his son D. Afonso V, the African, who conquered important cities like Tangiers, Ksar es-Seghir, and Arzila.

During those last two reigns, there was a man that led the beginning of Portuguese exploration, Infant D. Henrique, D. Duarte’s brother, which by his orders made the subordinates explore the African coast until Sierra Leone.

One of them was Gil Eanes who crossed for the first time the Cape Bojador.

Later kings continuously funded even more the exploration of Africa and later Asia and Americas. During the reign of D. João II, The perfect prince, the treaty of Tordesillas was signed, dividing the whole world between Portugal and Spain, giving us exclusive land rights from Brazil to Indonesia, and giving them land rights from America to the Philippines, at least as far as the Catholic world was concerned.

Portuguese exploration really started to kickstart during the reign of D. Manuel I, with him overseeing the discovery of Brazil in 1500 by the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral and the first sea route to India in 1498 by the explorer Vasco da Gama, through the Cape of Good Hope, which formerly was called Cape of Storms due to the belief that it was impossible to pass through and survive. This myth was then proved wrong by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488.

It was also during this reign that the Indian city of Goa was conquered in 1510 (other Indian cities were also conquered such as Damão and Diu, and the whole island of Sri Lanka, formerly Ceilão) alongside with Malacca in Southeast Asia in 1511. This was the height of the Portuguese empire.

His son, D. João III, the Pius, established contact with China and Japan, and at the same time intensifying the commerce in Brazil and India. He also established the Societas Iesu of which the members are called Jesuits, beginning the process of converting the colonies to Catholicism. More so, he also started the Portuguese Inquisition.

Portugal introduced firearms to Japan, an event that changed the archipelago from a bunch of warring states to a unified nation, by the emperor Tokugawa Ieyasu, leading to the end of the Japanese Sengoku Period.

Things were going perfectly for the Portuguese empire, but all good things must come to an end and Portugal’s good times had their days counted. D. João III’s grandson, D. Sebastião, The Desired, was driven by the desire of the elders of his court to continue the Reconquista in North Africa and spread Christianity there. This lead to his death in the battle of El-Ksar el Kebir, leaving Portugal heirless, consequently leading to a succession crisis and the beginning of the decline of the Portuguese empire throughout the world.

Even though this crisis was solved, for the first and last time in Portuguese history, the country was dominated by Spain. This would last a long time, all throughout the new Philipinean dynasty, ruled by the Hapsburg Spanish kings.

The first king, D. Filipe I (II of Spain), was not bad at all and the Portuguese people saw great levels of autonomy and self-rule as the Iberian Union was working. However, this soon ended since his son and grandson, D. Filipe II and III (III and IV of Spain) respectively, broke many of the promises made by their ancestor, leading to a growing discontent among the Portuguese people, further aggravated by the loss of many colonies (courtesy of the Netherlands) and forced intervention on Spanish wars.

As this lead to the beginning of the revolution, D. João IV, The Restorer, descendant of D. Manuel I and now Duke of Bragança, proclaimed himself king of Portugal in December 1st of 1640, starting the restoration of independence war that only ended in 1668 during the reign of his son, D. Afonso VI, The Victorious.