Over the past half millennium, from circa 1450 until the last third or so of the twentieth century, much of the worldâs history has been influenced in great part by one general dynamic and complex historical process known as European expansion. Defined as the opening up, unfolding, or increasing the extent, number, volume, or scope of the space, size, or participants belonging to a certain people or group, location, or geographical region, Europeâs expansion initially emerged and emanated physically, intellectually, and politically from southern Europeâspecifically from the Iberian peninsulaâduring the fifteenth century, expanding rapidly from that locus to include, first, all of Europeâs maritime and, later, most of its continental states and peoples. Most commonly associated with events described as the discovery of America and of a passage to the East Indies (Asia) by rounding the Cape of Good Hope (Africa) during the early modern and modern periods, European expansion and encounters with the rest of the world multiplied and morphed into several ancillary historical processes, including colonisation, imperialism, capitalism, and globalisation, encompassing themes, among others, relating to contacts and, to quote the EURO seriesâ original mission statement, âconnections and exchanges; peoples, ideas and products, especially through the medium of trading companies; the exchange of religions and traditions; the transfer of technologies; and the development of new forms of political, social and economic policy, as well as identity formation.â Because of its intrinsic importance, extensive research has been performed and much has been written about the entire period of European expansion.
With the first volume published in 2009, Brill launched the European Expansion and Indigenous Response book series at the initiative of well-known scholar and respected historian, Glenn J. Ames, who, prior to his untimely passing, was the founding editor and guided the first seven volumes of the series to publication. Being one of the early members of the seriesâ editorial board, I was then appointed as Series Editor. The seriesâ founding objectives are to focus on publications âthat understand and deal with the process of European expansion, interchange and connectivity in a global context in the early modern and modern periodâ and to âprovide a forum for a variety of types of scholarly work with a wider disciplinary approach that moves beyond the traditional isolated and nation bound historiographical emphases of this field, encouraging whenever possible non-European perspectives ⦠that seek to understand this indigenous transformative process and period in autonomous as well as inter-related cultural, economic, social, and ideological terms.â
The history of European expansion is a challenging field in which interest is likely to grow, despite, or perhaps because of, its polemical nature. Controversy has centered on tropes conceived and written in the past by Europeans, primarily concerning their early reflections and claims regarding the transcendental historical nature of this process and its emergence and importance in the creation of an early modern global economy and society. One of the most persistent objections is that the field has been âEurocentric.â This complaint arises because of the difficulty in introducing and balancing different historical perspectives, when one of the actors in the process is to some degree neither European nor Europeanisedâa conundrum alluded to in the African proverb: âUntil the lion tells his tale, the hunt will always glorify the hunter.â Another, and perhaps even more important and growing historiographical issue, is that with the re-emergence of historical millennial societies (China and India, for example) and the emergence of other non-Western European societies successfully competing politically, economically, and intellectually on the global scene vis-Ã -vis Europe, the seminal nature of European expansion is being subjected to greater scrutiny, debate, and comparison with other historical alternatives.
Despite, or perhaps because of, these new directions and stimulating sources of existing and emerging lines of dispute regarding the history of European expansion, I and the editorial board of the series will continue with the original objectives and mission statement of the series and vigorously â⦠seek out studies that employ diverse forms of analysis from all scholarly disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, history (including the history of science), linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, and religious studies.â In addition, we shall seek to stimulate, locate, incorporate, and publish the most important and exciting scholarship in the field.
Towards that purpose, I am pleased to introduce volume 44 of Brillâs EURO series entitled: Global Portuguese. A project that was guided and edited by Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya and Stefan Halikowski Smith, this volume is an excellent heterogeneous miscellany and compilation of specialised essays within their respective disciplinary fields that make an invaluable and, to date, unique contribution to mapping and conceptualising the global (dis)continuum of Portuguese language and Lusophone or Luso descendant cultures. These wide-ranging and diverse essays discuss topics within this (dis)continuum from distinct epistemological and theoretical angles that embrace and engage sociolinguistic, historical, anthropological, and literary studies approaches in a single volume.
Global Portuguese, therefore, is a multi-disciplinary collection of essays that offer new approaches and valuable synthesis of theory and evidence dealing with language and its role and importance in the expansion of peoples in general and specifically the Portuguese world by intertwining its interplay and interaction with various disciplines: anthropology, history, literature, and linguistics. It is an exciting and stimulating piece of work that should be warmly received by the EURO seriesâ readership.
George Bryan Souza
University of Texas, San Antonio