Economic competition among the European nations leads to the founding of commercial companies in England (the East India Company, founded in 1600) and in the Netherlands (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie—the United East India Company, founded in 1602), whose primary aim is to capture the spice trade by breaking the Portuguese monopoly in Asia.

Although the Dutch, with a large supply of capital and support from their government, preempt and ultimately exclude the British from the heartland of spices in the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), both companies manage to establish trading "factories" (actually warehouses) along the Indian coast.

The Dutch, for example, use various ports on the Coromandel Coast in South India, especially Pulicat (about twenty kilometers north of Madras), as major sources for slaves for their plantations in the East Indies and for cotton cloth as early as 1609. (The English, however, establish their first factory at what today is known as Madras only in 1639.)

Indian rulers enthusiastically accommodate the newcomers in hopes of pitting them against the Portuguese.

In 1619 Jahangir grants them permission to trade in his territories at Surat (in Gujarat) on the west coast and Hughli (in West Bengal) in the east.

These and other locations on the peninsula become centers of international trade in spices, cotton, sugar, raw silk, saltpeter, calico, and indigo.

English company agents become familiar with Indian customs and languages, including Persian, the unifying official language under the Mughals.

In many ways, the English agents of this period live like Indians, intermarry willingly, and a large number of them never return to their home country.

The knowledge of India thus acquired and the mutual ties forged with Indian trading groups give the English a competitive edge over other Europeans.

The French commercial interest—Compagnie des Indes Orientales (East India Company, founded in 1664)—comes late, but the French also establish themselves in India, emulating the precedents set by their competitors as they found their enclave at Pondicherry (Puduchcheri) on the Coramandel Coast.

The king of Kandy soon realizes that he has replaced one foe with another and proceeds to incite rebellion in the lowlands where the Dutch hold sway.

He even attempts to ally the British in Madras in his struggle to oust the Dutch.

These efforts end with a serious rebellion against his rule in 1664.

The Dutch profit from this period of instability and extend the territory under their control.

They take over the remaining harbors and completely cordon off Kandy, thereby making the highland kingdom landlocked and preventing it from allying itself with another foreign power.

This strategy, combined with a concerted Dutch display of force, subdues the Kandyan kings.

Henceforth, Kandy is unable to offer significant resistance except in its internal frontier regions.

The Dutch become involved in the politics of the Indian Ocean in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Headquartered at Batavia in modern Indonesia, the Dutch move to wrest control of the highly profitable spice trade from the Portuguese.

The Dutch begin negotiations with King Rajasinha II of Kandy in 1638.

A treaty assures the king assistance in his war against the Portuguese in exchange for a monopoly of the island's major trade goods, particularly cinnamon.

Rajasinha also promises to pay the Dutch war-related expenses.

The Portuguese fiercely resist the Dutch and the Kandyans and are expelled only gradually from their strongholds.

The Dutch capture the eastern ports of Trincomalee and Batticaloa in 1639 and restore them to the Sinhalese, but when the southwestern and western ports of Galle and Negombo fall in 1640, the Dutch refuse to turn them over to the king of Kandy.

The Dutch claim that Rajasinha has not reimbursed them for their vastly inflated claims for military expenditures.

This pretext allows the Dutch to control the island's richest cinnamon lands.

The Dutch ultimately present the king of Kandy with such a large bill for help against the Portuguese that the king can never hope to repay it.

After extensive fighting, the Portuguese surrender Colombo in 1656 and Jaffna, their last stronghold, in 1658.

Superior economic resources and greater naval power enable the Dutch to dominate the Indian Ocean.

They attack Portuguese positions throughout South Asia and in the end allow their adversaries to keep only their settlement at Goa.

English and Dutch merchants challenge the Portuguese monopoly in West Africa and Asia at the end of the sixteenth century and in the early seventeenth century, and see the Cape peninsula as a source of fresh water, meat, and timber for masts, all of which they can obtain through trade with the local Khoikhoi.

The English government refuses its mariners' requests that it annex land here and establish a base, but in 1652 the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie—VOC) establishes a supply station in Table Bay on the Cape peninsula, instructing its station commander, Jan van Riebeeck, and his eighty company employees to build a fort and to obtain supplies of foodstuffs for the Dutch fleets.

Southern Atlantic (1540–1683 CE): From Phantom Continents to Passage Islands

Myth, Map, and the Making of the Ocean’s Edge

Geography & Environmental Context

The Southern Atlantic stretches from the cold reaches of the Tristan–Gough–South Georgia arc to the volcanic islets of Saint Helena and Ascension along the Cape Route.
Its subregions—the Southern South Atlantic and the Northern South Atlantic—bookend one of the most remote corridors of the early modern world: a domain of storm belts, fog, and lonely landfalls between Africa and the Americas.
Volcanic summits like Tristan da Cunha rose abruptly from ocean depths; glaciers mantled South Georgia; while Saint Helena’s basalt ramparts and Ascension’s barren cones marked the empire’s first mid-ocean anchors.
Together they formed a maritime frontier where imagination preceded exploration, and navigation turned survival into empire.

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Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age deepened climatic extremes.
Cold currents and powerful westerlies sculpted the storm corridors of the south, while trade winds and equatorial calms governed the north.
Ice expanded across South Georgia and the South Orkneys, their coasts locked in fog and snow; farther north, Saint Helena’s uplands caught cloud-fed springs even as Ascension baked under equatorial sun.
For sailors, these contrasts defined the very rhythm of the Atlantic passage—how long they could linger, where they could water, and what they could imagine beyond the horizon.

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Subsistence, Settlement, and Survival

For much of this age, the Southern Atlantic remained unpeopled.
The southern islands—Tristan, Bouvet, the South Sandwich and South Orkneys—were visited only by wind and birds, their “discoveries” half fact, half myth.
The northern pair, Saint Helena and Ascension, began as watering rocks—waystations for the Portuguese and later the Dutch and English fleets.
By 1659 the English East India Company had turned Saint Helena into a fortified colony, its terraced gardens and freshwater springs supplying convoys between Asia and Europe.
Ascension remained uninhabited but indispensable, its turtle rookeries feeding passing crews.
Here, human presence clung to the edge of habitability, sustained by goats, citrus groves, and casks of rainwater in a sea otherwise ruled by storm and salt.

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Movement & Interaction Corridors

The Southern Atlantic was the ocean’s hinge between hemispheres.

• The Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope routes carried fleets from Europe to Asia and the Americas, sweeping past Tristan, Gough, and Saint Helena.

• The Portuguese Carreira da Índia, and later the VOC and EIC convoys, made the northern islands essential links in global trade.

• Storm-blown ships and seal-hunting crews reached the southern archipelagos by accident, transforming them into the first “phantom islands” of modern cartography.
  Each landfall—real or imagined—became a waypoint on the expanding mental map of the world ocean.

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Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

To the 16th- and 17th-century imagination, the Southern Atlantic embodied both myth and mastery.
Its uncharted south merged into the speculative Terra Australis, a continent thought to balance the northern lands.
Maps shaded these seas with conjecture: phantom coasts, “Isles of Fire,” and names of saints and storms.
By contrast, the northern isles became emblems of providence and possession—Saint Helena as a haven of fresh water and faith, its cliffs rising like a fortress ordained for empire.
Sailors’ journals and mariners’ hymns made them sacred ground in a secular sea: proof that even at the world’s edge, order and flag could prevail over chance and chaos.

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Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Nature governed all.
Penguin rookeries, seal herds, and guano plains in the far south cycled untouched through the centuries; their ecosystems remained pristine under ice and wind.
Farther north, human adaptation blended ingenuity with dependence:
terraced gardens clung to Saint Helena’s slopes; springs were rationed by convoy schedule; shipwrecked sailors harvested turtles and seabirds to survive.
Across this oceanic span, resilience was ecological in the south, strategic in the north—each realm thriving by its own rhythm of endurance.

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Transition (to 1683 CE)

By 1683, the Southern Atlantic had passed from myth to map.
The south still whispered of phantom continents, its islands charted in rumor; yet the north stood fortified and colonized, Saint Helena bristling with guns and gardens at the heart of England’s oceanic empire.
Seals and seabirds still ruled the polar seas, but empire had gained a foothold on the trade winds.
In this era, the Southern Atlantic was both wilderness and workshop—a realm where the cold winds of the Little Ice Age met the warm ambitions of global commerce, and where the world’s last empty spaces were first inscribed with human purpose.

Northern South Atlantic (1540–1683 CE)

Watering Rocks, East–Indies Waystations, and First Forts

Geography & Environmental Context

Northern South Atlantic comprises Saint Helena and Ascension Island—two volcanic outcrops on the Cape Route between Europe and the Indian Ocean. Anchors include Saint Helena’s sheer basalt cliffs, the deep cleft of Jamestown valley, perennial springs and cloud-forest heights, and Ascension’s bare lava cones and turtle beaches. Isolated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, the pair formed a natural victualling chain for fleets rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Trade-wind belts delivered cool, misty uplands and drier leeward slopes on Saint Helena, sustaining springs and pockets of montane greenery. Ascension was markedly arid, with scarce freshwater and episodic rains. Within the Little Ice Age, cool spells and irregular precipitation tightened water budgets; ship captains timed calls to reliable springs and turtle seasons. Steep gradients on Saint Helena concentrated rainfall in cloud belts, while exposed coasts faced relentless swell and sudden squalls.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Pre-colony usage: Through the 1500s–1600s both islands were uninhabited but frequently visited. Portuguese, then VOC and English East India Company (EIC) ships cut wood, filled casks, grazed introduced goats, planted fruit trees, and hunted turtles (Ascension).

• Saint Helena colony (from 1659): The EIC established a permanent garrison and settlers under a governor, terracing slopes for gardens, orchards, and small livestock. Springs fed kitchen plots; imported grain and salted provisions remained essential.

• Ascension: No permanent settlement; crews landed for turtles, fish, and the occasional ad-hoc cistern repair.

Technology & Material Culture

Oceanic visitors evolved from Iberian naus and carracks to larger East Indiamen and VOC fluyts. On Saint Helena, the EIC built stone batteries, storehouses, and pathways up the cliffs; cisterns and conduits captured springwater. Ship carpenters felled endemic trees for spars; introduced fruit (citrus, figs) and garden crops improved diet against scurvy. Everyday material life mixed sailor’s kit—barrels, cordage, iron tools—with fledgling colonial masonry and terracing.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Cape Route trunk: The Carreira da Índia, VOC circuits, and EIC fleets stitched the islands to Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, the Cape, and Goa–Batavia.

• Privateers & wartime detours: Anglo-Dutch rivalry diverted convoys to secure watering points; Saint Helena’s anchorage became a convoy mustering spot.

• Intra-island rhythms: Saint Helena’s springs dictated anchorage schedules; Ascension’s turtle season shaped provisioning calls.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Mariners’ journals, charts, and shipboard songs cast the islands as providential havens—“the island of good water”and a “turtle bank” in the mid-ocean. Early EIC proclamations invoked royal and corporate authority; Sunday musters, militia drill, and church services in Jamestown valley formalized a miniature maritime society. Wreck tales along Saint Helena’s cliffs and Ascension’s surf entered Atlantic lore.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Introductions: Goats, pigs, and fruit trees expanded shipboard diet but began eroding Saint Helena’s native cover.

• Water discipline: Spring protection, cask rotation, and cistern maintenance underpinned survival; ships staggered arrivals to avoid exhausting flows.

• Mixed subsistence: Garden terraces, small stock, fishing, and barter with passing vessels balanced irregular supply.

• Risk buffers: Convoys and duplicate waystations (Ascension as backup to Saint Helena) hedged against drought, foul weather, or hostile cruisers.

Political & Military Shocks

• Corporate colonization (1659): The EIC fortified Saint Helena, asserting exclusive watering rights on the homeward run from Asia.

• Anglo-Dutch Wars: Dutch claims and raids (including a brief seizure in 1673) prompted stronger fortifications before the English re-established control.

• Imperial signaling: Flag-raisings, salutes, and coastal batteries advertised possession to rival fleets in a corridor critical to Asian trade.

Transition

Between 1540 and 1683, the Northern South Atlantic shifted from unpeopled rocks in Iberian sailing directions to a strategic EIC colony (Saint Helena) paired with a provisioning outpost (Ascension). Springs, turtles, and cliff-secured anchorages made the difference between safe passage and disaster on the Cape Route. By the early 1680s, Jamestown’s guns, gardens, and garrison anchored England’s Indian Ocean highway—foreshadowing the islands’ lasting role as mid-Atlantic hinges of empire.

West Europe (1540–1683 CE)

Principalities, Ports, and the Making of the Early Modern West

Geography & Environmental Context

West Europe in this age cohered around two complementary maritime–Mediterranean spheres: Mediterranean West Europe—southern France, Corsica, and Monaco—and Atlantic West Europe—northern France and the Low Countries (the Dutch Republic, Spanish Netherlands, and Luxembourg) along the English Channel and Atlantic. Mountain arcs, river basins (Loire, Seine, Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine), and islanded coasts framed agrarian heartlands and sea-facing emporia. The Little Ice Age brought cooler, more volatile seasons; floods, frosts, and vintner uncertainty alternated with years of bounty, testing grain and wine economies alike.

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Subsistence & Settlement

• Mediterranean West Europe: Terraced vines, olives, figs, wheat, and pastoral uplands underpinned rural life; Corsica remained under Genoese control amid frequent revolts; Monaco, under the Grimaldi, consolidated as a small sovereign principality oriented toward France.

• Atlantic West Europe: Grain belts and dairying in Flanders and Artois; vineyards in Loire and Burgundy; bustling ports—Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bordeaux, Nantes, La Rochelle, Rouen—drove urban growth and craft specialization. Toulouse pivoted after the decline of pastel (woad) as indigo from India displaced older dye trades.

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Technology & Material Culture

• Agriculture & hydraulics: Dike and polder engineering in the Low Countries; drainage and crop rotation improved productivity; Mediterranean terraces stabilized thin soils.

• Shipping & finance: Dutch fluyts, improved charts, and insurance markets supported long-distance trade; the Amsterdam Exchange (1602) epitomized financial innovation.

• Architecture & arts: Renaissance and Baroque idioms reshaped towns—from Versailles’ courtly grandeur to Flemish guildhalls; coral-and-limestone citadels on Corsica testified to Genoese rule; Monaco’s palace symbolized dynastic continuity.

• Print culture: Amsterdam, Leiden, Paris, and Antwerp were premier centers for books, newspapers, and scientific tracts.

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Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Sea lanes: Channel and Atlantic routes carried wine, grain, salt, textiles, sugar, tobacco, and enslaved labor; the Dutch and French merchant marines connected Baltic grain to Iberian salt and Caribbean staples.

• River networks: The Seine–Loire–Rhine–Scheldt–Meuse arteries integrated inland markets with seaports.

• Diplomatic circuits: Franco–Spanish and Habsburg–Dutch rivalries mapped corridors of war and alliance; Monaco’s 1642 French investiture bound the Rock to Bourbon protection while preserving sovereignty.

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Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Humanism → Baroque: French Renaissance letters (Rabelais, La Pléiade) yielded to Baroque classicism under Louis XIII/XIV; in the Low Countries, the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque flourished—Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens.

• Theater & letters: Molière and Racine codified French drama; the Republic of Letters linked Amsterdam and Paris to London and Rome.

• Urban identity: Merchant patriciates funded almshouses, canals, and guild chapels; Huguenot salons and Dutch collegia nurtured sciences (Descartes in the Netherlands; Leeuwenhoek’s microscopy).

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Political & Military Shocks

Mediterranean West Europe

• Monaco: Honoré II styled himself Prince (1612); by 1642 he became Duc et Pair Étranger under French protection—an emblem of princely consolidation amid Franco–Spanish rivalry.

• Corsica: Genoese rule persisted through fortified ports (Calvi, Bonifacio), despite endemic clan revolts and piracy.

• Southern France: The Wars of Religion (1562–1598) ravaged Languedoc and Provence; the Edict of Nantes (1598) stabilized coexistence until later retrenchments.

Atlantic West Europe

• Habsburg–Valois conflicts culminated in Cateau-Cambrésis (1559); France turned inward to confront confessional war.

• Dutch Revolt (1568–1648): The Eighty Years’ War birthed the Dutch Republic; Westphalia (1648) confirmed independence and reoriented the North Sea economy.

• Absolutism & expansion: Louis XIV’s wars (esp. Franco–Dutch War, 1672–78) and administrative centralization projected France as Europe’s leading power by 1683.

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Religious Transformations

• Reformation & Counter-Reformation: Calvinism spread in the Low Countries and northern France; Jesuit missions, seminaries, and baroque piety spearheaded Catholic renewal.

• Toleration settlements: The Edict of Nantes and the Dutch Republic’s pragmatic toleration offered early models of pluralism amid enduring confessional fault lines.

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Economic Transitions

• Pastel to indigo: Toulouse’s woad economy declined as Indigofera imports rose; merchants diversified into grain finance, legal professions, and textiles.

• Dutch commercial hegemony: VOC and WIC networks, Baltic grain trade, and the Amsterdam Exchangeunderwrote a global web.

• French Atlantic rise: Bordeaux and Nantes expanded on wine and emerging plantation commerce, laying foundations for 18th-century growth.

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Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Low Countries: Continuous dike raising, polder drainage, and windmill pumping defended land and stabilized yields.

• Mediterranean slopes: Terracing, cisterns, and mixed arboriculture buffered droughts; coastal fisheries supplemented diets.

• Urban welfare: Confraternities, hospices, and poor relief mitigated famine and plague shocks.

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Transition

Between 1540 and 1683, West Europe consolidated princely sovereignties and maritime republics, rebuilt after confessional wars, and vaulted into a global commercial system.

• In the Mediterranean, Monaco’s French alignment, Corsica’s Genoese fortresses, and southern France’s cultural refinement set the tone for principality survival amid great-power rivalry.

• Along the Atlantic, the Dutch Republic emerged as Europe’s commercial-financial engine, while France moved toward hegemonic monarchy and colonial reach.

By the eve of 1683, West Europe’s ports, polities, and patronage had forged durable institutions and identities—foundations that would dominate the continent’s politics, culture, and oceans in the century ahead.

The Decline of Portugal’s Seaborne Empire During the Iberian Union (1580–1640)

Portugal’s overseas empire had already begun to decline before the Iberian Union, but its 60-year incorporation under Spanish rule (1580–1640)—known in Portugal as the "Spanish Captivity"—accelerated the process. Under Spanish rule, Portugal was dragged into Spain’s conflicts with England and the Dutch Republic, resulting in the loss of key territories in Asia, Africa, and Brazil.

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Impact of the Iberian Union on Portugal’s Empire

1. Wars with England and the Dutch Republic

   • As part of Spain’s empire, Portugal became an enemy of England and the Dutch, two rising naval powers.
   • The Dutch and English targeted Portuguese trade routes, attacking fortified cities and commercial outposts in the Far East, Africa, and the Americas.

2. Dutch and English Conquests in Asia and India

   • The Dutch seized Portuguese-controlled trading posts in the East Indies, undermining Portugal’s monopoly on the spice trade.
   • The Dutch East India Company (VOC) captured:
     • Malacca (1641)—a major Portuguese hub in Southeast Asia.
     • Ceylon (Sri Lanka, 1638–1658)—cutting off Portugal’s access to cinnamon trade.
     • The Moluccas (Spice Islands)—ending Portugal’s dominance in the nutmeg and clove markets.
   • The English gained a foothold in India, gradually taking over Portuguese commercial influence.

3. Attacks on Portuguese Brazil

   • The Dutch West India Company (WIC) attacked Brazil, seeking to dominate the lucrative sugar trade.
   • They:
     • Occupied Pernambuco (1630–1654), the richest sugar-producing region in the Americas.
     • Captured and raided Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.
   • Only resistance from Portuguese settlers and indigenous allies prevented a total Dutch conquest of Brazil.

4. Portuguese Trade Monopolies Weakened

   • The Dutch and English broke Portugal’s commercial monopoly in both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic.
   • Lisbon lost control over vital trade networks, leading to economic decline.

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Conclusion: A Severely Weakened Empire by 1640

• By the time Portugal regained independence in 1640, its empire was greatly reduced.
• The Dutch controlled key territories in Asia, the English had established themselves in India, and Portugal’s monopoly on global trade had collapsed.
• The only bright spot was that Portuguese settlers and militias managed to defend Brazil, preventing it from becoming a Dutch colony.

The Iberian Union (1580–1640) was a period of decline for Portugal, accelerating the loss of its global dominance and marking the beginning of its transition to a second-tier colonial power.

João IV: The Restorer of Portuguese Independence (1641–1656)

When João IV of Portugal was proclaimed king in 1641, he faced a kingdom in ruins and a serious threat from Spain, which sought to reincorporate Portugal into the Iberian Union. His reign was focused on military defense, diplomatic maneuvering, and economic recovery, ultimately securing Portugal’s sovereignty after decades of Spanish rule (1580–1640).

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Immediate Measures to Defend the Kingdom

Upon his proclamation as king, João IV took swift action to strengthen Portugal’s position:

• Created a Council of War to oversee military strategy.
• Appointed military governors in the provinces to ensure effective regional defense.
• Recruited soldiers and rebuilt fortifications to counter Spanish invasions.
• Constructed an arms foundry to supply the military with Portuguese-made weapons.

His primary concern was to prevent Spain from reversing Portugal’s independence, a conflict that would evolve into the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1668).

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Securing International Recognition and Alliances

João IV worked tirelessly to gain diplomatic support from European powers that opposed Spain:

• June 1, 1641 – Signed an alliance with Louis XIII of France, strengthening Portugal’s position against Spain.
• Negotiated peace with England and the Dutch Republic, former rivals in colonial conflicts.
  • England – Portugal’s historical ally, agreed to mutual cooperation.
  • Holland – Though they had fought over Brazil and Asian colonies, João IV prioritized peace to focus on defending Portugal from Spain.

These diplomatic efforts isolated Spain and helped Portugal withstand multiple Spanish invasions.

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Achievements by the Time of His Death (1656)

By the end of João IV’s reign, he had:

1. Consolidated and Restored the Monarchy

   • Secured recognition from European powers.
   • Strengthened Portugal’s military defenses.

2. Recaptured Some Lost Colonial Possessions

   • While Dutch Brazil remained contested, Portugal retook parts of Angola and São Tomé.
   • Maintained control of key overseas trade routes.

3. Defeated Spanish Attempts to Reincorporate Portugal

   • The Portuguese Restoration War continued, but Spain was unable to reconquer Portugal.

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Conclusion: The Founder of the Braganza Dynasty

João IV’s reign was a turning point in Portuguese history, marking:

• The definitive break from Spanish rule.
• The restoration of Portuguese sovereignty, ensuring the survival of the Braganza dynasty.
• The foundation for Portugal’s continued independence, later solidified by the Treaty of Lisbon (1668).

His military leadership, diplomatic skill, and strategic vision earned him the title "The Restorer" (O Restaurador), securing his place as one of Portugal’s most crucial monarchs.