Failed capture of overland trade rerouted Portuguese ambitions to the Atlantic coast.

Evidence

With the pirates under control there was a real possibility that the Portuguese might be able to take over the caravan trade-an important part of which was in gold dust-that Ceuta enjoyed with the African interior. In the event, the attempt to capture this trade failed… And so there emerged another purpose. This was to discover from which parts of Africa the merchandise, particularly the gold dust, emanated and, having done so, to contrive to have it re-routed … to stations on the Atlantic coast in which the inhabitants would already have been converted to Christianity and of which the King of Portugal would be the ruler. (1975, 62) This comment pinpoints the complex factors-economic, political, and spiritual-which motivated Portuguese expansion. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 542

Categorization

• XREF: Shows economic motive and evangelization fused from the start — a precedent for how trade, sovereignty, and conversion intertwined in colonial projects that downstream readings trace.