Do Comércio à Pilhagem: os Contextos dos Assaltos Portugueses nos Mares da Ásia

As is well known, the arrival and installation of the Portuguese in Maritime Asia were determined by the conveniences of the Crown. As a promoter, financier and administrator of the expansionist process, the Crown left little room for maneuver to private initiatives and to the satisfaction of its economic gains. The practice of maritime seizures, which had been established in the waters of the West Indian Ocean as a result of competition with trade and Muslim routes, was also regulated and thus constituted a legal framework for corsair activity. Although the written sources available on the subject are not abundant, the parallel development of piracy by Portuguese subjects throughout the sixteenth century was evident. There were several cases of this type of situation. First of all, the violation of rules in the course of naval missions carried out under the aegis of the Portuguese Estado da Índia, but also defections from the official service, motivated by problems with justice or by mere personal ambition, followed by the free exercise of robberies. It is also worth noting the trajectories of other men who, in a delayed or definitive way, settled in areas of the so-called Shadow Empire, including piracy in their action.