What compelled the great overseas Portuguese discoveries is addressed, after which Hatton identifies the conditions that undermined Portugal's new wealth gained from colonizing enterprises in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and that, ironically, inexorability to the nation's decline. Affection for and sober views of his subject impart a geniality and balance to his account of the development of the Portuguese nation, and his book itself answers the need for a good general history for lay readers. The question posed by the history of Portugal is, How could a nation fall so precipitously from glorious empire-builder in the vanguard of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century age of discovery to poor backwater of Europe, languishing outside the sphere of international influence? The author, a Lisbon-based English correspondent, rests his answer on years of studying Portuguese history and the Portuguese national character.
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