This second volume of A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire from Beginnings to 1807, which concerns the Portuguese empire, is organised somewhat differently from Volume 1. Here each chapter engages with Portugal's presence in a particular geographical region – or, in the cases of Chapters 16 and 19, with the processes of exploring and opening up communications. Given that the Portuguese empire was an extraordinarily widespread and dispersed entity, only loosely held together – a complex patchwork of disparate parts – it seemed to me such a framework constituted easily the most appropriate option for a volume of this kind.

The volume begins with a chapter on the Portuguese presence in North Africa, where the kingdom's overseas expansion began in 1415. Portugal continued to maintain considerable commitments in this region for at least a century – and only abandoned its last North African outpost in 1769. Next, there is a chapter on Portuguese voyages of exploration in the Atlantic, concluding with Dias's rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 and the overland reconnaissances of Covilhã. The two following chapters describe how the Portuguese established and maintained themselves, respectively, in numerous parts of Atlantic Africa, from Mauritania to Angola, and in various Atlantic archipelagoes – particularly Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. Then there is a cluster of three chapters on the Portuguese in maritime Asia, up until the crisis of the mid-seventeenth century.