Page 180 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

180 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

would be based on the tonnage of the ship . At the same time, it made it compulsory to
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include artillery on board, paid for by the ship-owners, and the constitution of informal
armadas, put together while awaiting authorisation for departure, led by one ship, which
would be the leader . All those mechanisms, introduced in a context of war and naval
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crisis, again serve to prove the inability of the crown to provide official protection to mer-
chant fleets with a royal navy.
And we should not forget that when the Dutch attacked Brazil and took Pernambuco, in
1630, the state was unable to arm a fleet and assemble an army and had to levy several charg-
es on municipalities in order to provide for the constitution of a defence fleet. This initiative
in fact triggered several rebellions . in the end, as is well known, it was not a Portuguese
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army, provided by Portuguese state, that drove the Dutch out of Brazil, but a colonial army,
constituted by three military garrisonsmilitary forces: one formed by Portuguese settlers, the
other by slaves and the third by Indians, in which even the participation of female squadrons
is mentioned . This episode shows how the Portuguese state was powerless to defend and
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safeguard a colonial territory central to the Portuguese overseas empire in the 17 century,
and how self-organising initiatives and the contribution of individuals, mostly civilians, fre-
quently had to make up for a non-existent army, navy or royal fleet.

PrOjectiOns Of warfare and Piracy in MaritiMe cOMMunities: 16 century
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POrtugal
Based on the above discussion, two essential assumptions can be made.
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First, in the context of 16 and 17 century Portuguese expansion, there is no effective
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distinction between the military and civilians: it was frequently as civilians that peasants and
craftsmen participated in terrestrial warfare, while sailors, mostly seafarers, participated in
war at sea, according to offensive or defensive needs. This kind of involvement was often
compulsory, imposed by royal decree, but it could also be spontaneous as a reaction to cir-
cumstances arising from military confrontations. In either case, it allows us to understand the
widespread impact of war on civilians.
Second, the increase in military threats from piracy, privateers or naval war, as well as
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those resulting from attacks on coastal areas, mainly in the second half of the 16 century,
had a major impact on coastal maritime communities.
It is this impact on family life, society, the economy and mentalities that we will try to ad-
dress, focusing on the case study of Vila do Conde, a northwestern maritime town dominated
by a large seafaring community. The empirical evidence we will present is supported by the
analysis of a large documental corpus that includes central archive documents, notarised
deeds, town council minutes, legal proceedings and records from a local charitable founda-
tion, the Santa Casa de Misericordia, covering the period from 1500 to 1640.

7 The document stipulates two men for each 10 tons (toneladas de arqueação).
8 Certas providências régias respeitantes à guarda da costa do reino e do comércio ultramarino no século de
Quinhentos. “Boletim Cultural da Câmara Municipal do Porto”, vol. 30, 1967, pp. 335-360.
9 Cf. Oliveira, António de – Movimentos sociais do Portugal Moderno
10 Cf. Polónia, Amélia - Mulheres que partem e mulheres que ficam – O protagonismo feminino na expansão
ultramarina. “O Estudo da História”, nº4, Lisboa, A. P. H., 2001, pp. 79-98