Paper short abstract:

In our paper we aim to show the way Goa is depicted in 16th century accounts of the Portuguese empire. Our main focus are Portuguese Expansion chronicles, which eventually allow us to understand Global History discursive strategies.

Paper long abstract:

Our analysis will focus Portuguese 16th Expansion chronicles in order to unveil the way their authors conceived Expansion General Histories, and, eventually, their sources. We shall confront the way Goa, at the time center of the "Portuguese State of India", was described by the authors of both Regal and Expansion chronicles, while at the same time contextualize their different narrative perceptions. We shall compare João dos Barros' Asia..., Fernão Lopes de Castanheda's History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portuguese, Gaspar Correia's Legends of India, and Damião de Góis', Francisco de Andrada's and Jerónimo Osório's Regal chronicles of king Manuel and of king João III, in order to ponder on the different strategic narratives about the empire, following a Global History analytic approach. Both physical and natural spaces, local history, and the dialogue with the Other(s), will be taken as descriptive indicators that we shall have in mind in order to reveal their historicity in "writing Goa in the Portuguese Empire in the 16th century through a Global perspective".