‘Whether it pleases the locals or not’: Empire and Consent in Portuguese Asia during the Sixteenth Century

Abstract

Is consent a valid or useful concept in the context of sixteenth century Portuguese Asia? Given the specific characteristics of this empire, a study of consent has the potential to shed light on its nature, the form in which it was built, and how it survived. It may likewise prove useful for clarifying the complexity of this empire’s dynamics, namely its relations with the Asian powers. In some cases, consent formed part of the guidance and orders issued from Lisbon, and to some extent it was integrated into the Portuguese Crown’s policy towards war and diplomacy. A number of interesting contrasts are revealed by an analysis of a set of regional and local differences concerning the extent to which consent formed part of the routine practices deployed in the political and diplomatic life of Portuguese Asia. Finally, a survey of a further set of examples demonstrate how the issue of consent had a limited impact on the forms in which the empire was historicized, legitimized, and framed in the historiographical discourse. This article is part of the special theme section on Consenting to Early Modern Empires, which has been guest-edited by Sonia Tycko.

Keywords

• war
• Estado da Índia
• diplomacy
• Asia
• consent
• informal empire