Resumen de The pioneering intercontinental framework of Portuguesefortification in the Expansion
In 2022 we celebrate 200 years of Brazil’s independence, the huge country of the New World, separated from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves, the only State that had its capital on two continents (Lisboa and Rio de Janeiro). The Portuguese Expansion began very early (Ceuta, 1415) and the Portuguese Colonial Empire was the one that lasted the longest (1975), having its epilogue in the origin of one of the most recent independent states (East Timor, 2002). The irreplaceable role of the fortifications was decisive for the success of the mastery of the seas, highlighting some primal dates and cases, mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries and already classified by Unesco, as for example: - 1455 - first dedicated fort implanted outside Europe, Arguin/Mauritania (inside Bank of Arguin National Park); - 1507 - construction of the first European Fort on the eastern side of the world, Quíloa (Kilwa Kisivani)/Tanzania; - 1540 - Mazagão (El Jadida, Cité Portugaise)/Morocco, the innovative European bulwark city built overseas; - c. 1560 - Fortress of Qal’at al-Bahraïn/Bahrain, built after the great bulwarked reform (1558) carried out on the first fortification of Hormuz/Iran (1507-1515); - 1593 - Fortress of Mombasa/Kenya, the last major achievement of the so-called Portuguese Maritime Empire of the East. However, we indicate many more cases, all of them from Portuguese origin within the same frame of time and also considered as World Heritage. Along with a chronological demonstration of the colonial Portuguese fortifications all over the world, it is intended to evoke the exceptional case of the establishment of the borders of Brazil, where last a lot of examples that cover almost four centuries of the history of military architecture, including the great fortresses a la Vauban of Macapá and of Príncipe da Beira (18th century), in the Amazon basin. These two major works, together with 17 other sites, appear on the Unesco’s Tentative List of Brazil for the classification of the defensive network of the great frontier of South America as a World Heritage Site.
