THE ESTADO DA ÍNDIA BEYOND THE SUB-CONTINENT

In the century-and-a-half after 1663, there were three major components of the Estado da Índia located beyond the Indian sub-continent: Macau, Portuguese Timor, and Portuguese East Africa. All, especially from Goa's perspective, were isolated places, remote not only from the viceregal capital itself, but from each other. Each had its own special character, unique in the context of the Portuguese empire – a port-city on the South China coast; enclaves and interests on a remote island in the Indonesian archipelago; settlements and holdings on a vast coastline and along a great river valley, stretching far into the African savanna.

In each of these disparate settings the colonists were deeply pre-occupied with their own problems, and in each local issues held centre stage. This is not to deny they also had much in common. All the colonists expressed loyalty to the same crown, were to a degree affected by the same central government policies and subscribed to the same basic traditions and values. Nevertheless, such were the differences between Macau, Timor and Portuguese East Africa, and so far were they all from the core of the Estado da Índia, that it seems compelling to treat each as a discrete colonial entity. The smallest of them, in some respects the most extraordinary but by no means the least significant, was the port-city of Macau.