Portugal’s fifteenth century was violent, not peaceful as often assumed.
Evidence
Still, as Castro had warned: “It is impossible to understand the formation of the immense Portuguese Empire solely in terms of economic or statistical analysis.” It might be added that this is particularly the case when such analysis is based on indifferent historical reconstruction. The “peacefulness” of Portugal’s fifteenth century, which C. R. Boxer asserts (and Wallerstein repeats) for example, is to be doubted when one learns elsewhere that the century was punctuated by a martial and diplomatic war with Castile, and that the century ended with the homicidal suppression of a dynastic struggle. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 479
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Calls out Wallerstein’s world-systems account directly - a correction the reader can weigh against Wallerstein’s model in their wider reading.