The First World Empire

Portugal, War and Military Revolution

Hélder Carvalhal, André Murteira, Roger Lee de Jesus, Hélder Carvalhal, André Murteira, Roger Lee de Jesus

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000372939
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the early modern military history of Portugal and its possessions in Africa, the Americas, and Asia from the perspective of the military revolution historiographical debate. The existence of a military revolution in the early modern period has been much debated in international historiography, and this volume fills a significant gap in its relation to the history of Portugal and its overseas empire. It examines different forms of military change in specifically Portuguese case studies but also adopts a global perspective through the analysis of different contexts and episodes in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Contributors explore whether there is evidence of what could be defined as aspects of a military revolution or whether other explanatory models are needed to account for different forms of military change. In this way, it offers the reader a variety of perspectives that contribute to the debate over the applicability of the military revolution concept to Portugal and its empire during the early modern period. Broken down into four thematic parts and broad in both chronological and geographical scope, the book deepens our understanding of the art of warfare in Portugal and its empire and demonstrates how the military revolution debate can be used to examine military change in a global perspective.

This is an essential text for scholars and students of military history, military architecture, global history, Asian history, and the history of Iberian empires.

Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

PART 1

Fortifications and military revolution

1

NEGOTIATING EARLY MODERNITY IN AZEMMOUR, MOROCCO

Military architecture in transition

Ana Lopes and Jorge Correia

Motto

On the left bank of the Oum er-Rbia, one of the major rivers of Morocco, Azemmour is around 3 kilometres inland from the mouth and is today a laid-back town. This city was the last big Portuguese conquest in the Maghreb, marking a strategic stage for the expansion of the Crown between the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries (Map 1.1). The Portuguese presence here, which lasted from 1513 to 1542, would irreversibly influence the town’s image, dimension, and limits because of a drastic downsizing procedure undertaken. This technique was joined by important phases of military architecture experiments as its defences would play a key role in the early 1500s renovation that all the other Portuguese possessions in North Africa were witnessing.

This chapter aims to expose the key phases of the changes in military architecture that this short European presence introduced in this city in the first half of the sixteenth century. Such actions were central to the Military Revolution within the Portuguese’s overseas sphere, particularly an almost constant war effort in the Maghreb. One of the most interesting aspects for the analyses of the Portuguese fortifications in Azemmour is the degree of revision of pre-existing structures and the newly built defensive architectural elements. Azemmour’s works epitomize the laboratorial character of Portuguese military architecture interventions in new, coeval conquests, as pioneer models for full bastioned developments later in the century in the region or in revisions of obsolete defences in older Portuguese possessions in North Africa.

Indeed, this was a time to negotiate novel early modern winds of reform and atavistic late medieval affirmations of power, which were rather based on cavalry ways of making war. Given recent architectural surveys, a detailed analysis of drawn material and historic archival research, the argument in this chapter seeks to evaluate the urban impact of the Portuguese presence and its military architectural achievements in Azemmour. Furthermore, it looks for interpretations that can position this case study as a central development between neuro and pyroballistic discussion in Portugal at the time.

MAP 1.1 North Africa and Southern Iberia Peninsula

Beyond morphological and typological analyses that convey a panorama of the physical metamorphosis, Azemmour is part of important cultural exchanges and the circulation of military knowledge, which is reflected in the work of Diogo and Francisco de Arruda. These master builders managed to bridge experiences in the metropolis and the Maghreb through an extensive network of interventions in fortifications and even international contacts.

Context

The Portuguese presence in North Africa lasted from 1415, when King João I (1385–1433) started what would become a series of conquests, to 1769. This last date represents the epilogue of a political, military, and commercial investment in the Maghreb, when the evacuation of the last stronghold was decided in Lisbon. For more than three and a half centuries, the Portuguese main expression of its territorial expansion consisted in isolated enclaves along the Strait of Gibraltar and Atlantic coasts, which corresponds today to a long seashore stretch along the Kingdom of Morocco, with the exception of the Spanish city of Ceuta. This territory was never treated as a full colony, with autonomous jurisdiction, by the Crown. It was rather based on the conquest and occupation of pre-existing Arab and Muslim cities, meaning a network of isolated possessions ruled directly by the king through local captains and governors. The time span covers an important shift in ideas and ways of making war, transitioning from late medieval images to early modern conceptions on the verge of the year 1500.

Traditionally, historiography has divided Portuguese military conquests and the establishment of commercial outposts in North Africa into two important areas. On the northern tip of the territory, the military takeover of Ceuta, followed by Ksar Seghir in 1458 and both Assilah and Tangier in 1471, defined what was then called Algarve de Além-mar [Overseas Gharb]. These former Muslim cities were integrated into the Portuguese Crown even though their influence only occasionally went beyond the limits of their walls. A peace treaty with the Kingdom of Fez allowed the European power to extend their administration towards the hinterland for a period of a few decades at the end of the fifteenth century.

Further south, Portuguese ambition was to prevent Marrakesh from accessing its sea ports. The establishment of suzerainties in cities such as Azemmour (1486) and Safi (1488) in exchange for military protection clearly shows how vulnerable these places were, being caught between internal Moroccan disputes. As a consequence, a few years later, both cities were militarily conquered (Safi in 1508 and Azemmour in 1513) as a part of a broader plan by King Manuel I (1495–1521) to ensure a stronger Portuguese presence in this southern area and a leading position in reaping the commercial benefits of its harbours. Furthermore, several castles were built at strategically important sites along the coast, to provide additional protection for recently conquered cities, such as Mazagão, 15 kilometres south of Azemmour, in 1514.

Overall, the arrival of a new power and faith also led to a reconfiguration of the urban fabric, reducing its area. The most frequent military approach was conquest. Urban appropriations shrank cities, erased suburbs, and promoted the opening of new streets and squares, closer to a Portuguese identification of the built environment. In the cities occupied by the Portuguese, a pragmatic attitude was the rule, oriented towards sustainability in a hostile environment. Significant reductions in perimeter and surface were carried out, in a procedure known as atalho (downsizing).¹ In some cases, opportunities to experiment with more-elaborate systems left an urban heritage that remains today. The establishment of new settlements was another paradigm for expanding the Portuguese presence, if less successful. The foundation of Mazagão (today the neighbourhood of the Cité Portugaise in El Jadida), in 1541, is an exemplary case study, representing the climax of all the urban and military architecture experiences acquired in a region where city walls generally meant a frontier for faith and possession. Mazagão also embodies an epistemological shift owing to all the previous experience, notably in neighbouring Azemmour.

Azemmour: historical background

By the time the Portuguese took the city in 1513, it had already had a long history to tell regarding its past urban history and recent Portuguese interactions. While it is only possible to speculate about Azemmour’s Roman and even pre-Roman origin, its importance during the Islamic period is historically documented.² In the twelfth century, its commercial connection with the Iberian Peninsula remained active, especially with the port of Cádiz. The city’s apogee came during the rule of the Almohad dynasty (1130–1269), when the maritime dimension of the Maghreb had increased and ties between the region and the Iberian Peninsula were strengthened. It was at the time a regional capital,³ and its description by Ibn al-Khathib in the mid-fourteenth century gives an image of a wealthy and prosperous city.⁴ Recent archaeological work carried out in Azemmour has led to the identification of remains related to this description.⁵

Curtain walls and rammed-earth towers describe a mostly circular perimeter clearly beyond the current medina’s wall (Figure 1.1). Today’s urban display of modern Azemmour registers a perfectly visible contour that follows the archaeological data. Such a medieval dimension was anchored on a street that still today houses the market and leads to the sanctuary of the city’s patron Moulay Bouchaib, a mausoleum of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This evidence indicates that Azemmour had a walled circuit enclosing a larger area. Furthermore, excavations performed next to that wall uncovered a pottery production zone, whose artefacts were attributed to the Marinid.⁶ This discovery helps to date the last stage of occupation around the beginning of the fifteenth century, approximately one century before the Portuguese occupation.

Due to its location and good resources, Portuguese interest in Azemmour grew. At the same time, political and military instability in the region, along with the need of protection from extensive external plundering (mostly by Europeans, including the Portuguese), led Azemmouri authorities to request Portuguese suzerainty.⁷ The city and the Portuguese signed a treaty in 1486 setting the deal. In exc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• Part 1 Fortifications and military revolution
• Part 2 Sizes of the armies and the rise of the fiscal state
• Part 3 Tradition and innovation in warfare
• Part 4 Cultural exchange and circulation of military knowledge
• Bibliography
• Index