Portuguese III

1580-1640 CE

From 1580 to 1640 CE, the Portuguese endured their Babylonian captivity — Spanish Habsburgs wearing their crown after King Sebastian vanished in Moroccan sands, their empire administered from Madrid, their merchants watching Dutch rivals seize Asian trading posts one by one. Sixty years they waited, their identity preserved in prophecy and resentment, until the Duke of Braganza raised the flag of restoration and Portugal remembered how to be itself.