Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A Nation of Emigrants
The great discoveries of Portuguese seafarers had profound effects on the country's demo-
graphics. With the birth and expansion of an empire, Portuguese settled in trading posts in
Africa and Asia, but the colony of Brazil drew the biggest numbers of early Portuguese
emigrants. They cleared the land (harvesting the Brazil wood that gave the colony its
name), established farms, and set about the slow, steady task of nation-building - with help,
of course, from the millions of slaves stolen from Africa. Numbers vary widely, but an es-
timated half a million Portuguese settled in Brazil during the colonial period, prior to inde-
pendence in 1822, and over 400,000 flooded in during the second half of the 19th century.
The most famous Portuguese emigrant to Brazil was the future king himself. When Napoleon invaded in
1807, the royal family and their extensive retinue fled to Brazil, where they installed themselves in Rio de
Janeiro. Many royal retainers never returned home; Dom João VI returned only in 1822.
By the 1900s, Portuguese began emigrating in large numbers to other parts of the world.
The US and Canada received over half a million immigrants, with huge numbers heading
to France, Germany, Venezuela and Argentina. The 1960s saw another upsurge of emig-
rants, as young men fled the country in order to avoid the draft that would send them to
fight bloody colonial wars in Africa. The 1974 revolution also preceded a big exodus as
those associated with the Salazar regime went abroad rather than face reprisals.
What all these emigrants had in common was the deep sadness of leaving their homeland
to struggle in foreign lands. Those left behind were also in a world of heartache - wives left
alone to raise children, villages deserted of young men, families torn apart. The numbers
are staggering: over three million emigrants between 1890 and 1990; aside from Ireland, no
other European country lost as many people to emigration.
