The Military Revolution and European Wars Outside of Europe: The Portuguese-Dutch War in Asia in the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century

This article discusses Portugal’s defeat in the Portuguese-Dutch war in Asia during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, focusing on the much-debated issue of whether a military revolution in Europe produced a military exceptionalism that made Europeans militarily superior to non-Europeans in the Early Modern period. The view that Asian military influence on the Portuguese in the sixteenth century made them militarily inferior to European enemies such as the Dutch remains prevalent in Portuguese historiography. Such influence appeared to occur only in certain areas of naval warfare, however, in a way that does not corroborate claims for an extensive early modern western military exceptionalism.