Portuguese interest in settlement in sixteenth-century northeastern North America : a historiographical reassessment

Abstract

Portuguese interest in settlement in northeastern North America in the sixteenth century is examined in the context of the existing historiographical literature which deals with settlement primarily in the seventeenth century and which assumes that Europeans were not interested in settlement in the region in the sixteenth century because the seasonal nature of the migratory fishery did not require it. The thesis questions this historiography by focusing on three separate instances of Portuguese interest in settlement between approximately 1520 and 1570.

The Portuguese interest in permanent residency in northeastern North America emerged in part out of the pattern of settlement that had taken place in the Azores in the fifteenth century---an indication that Portuguese Atlantic activity was governed by different timelines and priorities from those of the French or English. The thesis concludes that the existing historiography is misleading with respect to the Portuguese, thus identifying a cloudy area in the historiography and pointing to the need for a re-examination of its explanatory power.