Portugal

Primary culture

Portuguese (Iberian)

Capital province

Lisboa (227)

Government

Feudal Nobility

State religion

Catholic

Technology group

Western

Portuguese ideas

Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.33.

Traditions:

+10% Infantry combat ability

+1 Fleet movement speed

Legacy of the Navigator

+10% Morale of navies

+20% Colonial range

Afonsine Ordinance

+10% Goods produced modifier

Feitorias

+10% Global trade power

Land Before Faith

+15 Global settler increase

Encourage the Bandeirantes

+15% Trade efficiency

Royal Absolutism

−15% Construction cost

+0.50 Yearly absolutism

Royal Academy of Fortification, Artillery and Drawing

+10% Fort defense

+1 Artillery fire

Ambition:

+20% Global tariffs

With the Reconquista almost complete, and the Iberian peninsula almost entirely in Christian hands, the Kingdom of

Portugal has turned its attention to the shores of Africa. With the conquest of Ceuta in 1415 the founder of the Avis dynasty, João I, has already made the first inroads into the Moorish homeland. A policy that his grandson, the still young Afonso V will continue to the best of his abilities. It is however through the work of Afonso's uncle, Dom Henrique, Henry the Navigator, that

Portugal will leave its mark upon the world.

Under Henrique's direction Portugal has made great leaps in shipbuilding and navigation, embarking on expeditions long past cape Bojador in the south. Seeking gold, spices and perhaps the legendary Kingdom of Prester John, Portuguese sailors are about to undertake voyages all over the globe. They are reaching for new continents in the west as well as India, Indonesia and even China and Japan in the East. Indeed Portuguese sailors might one day circumnavigate the entire globe.

As of 1444 Afonso is still a minor, with the daily rule of the kingdom entrusted to another uncle, Dom Pedro, Duke of Coimbra. Dom Pedro's regency has been fraught with the difficulties of controlling the strong Portuguese nobility at court, but the duke has so far been able to ably strengthen royal power at their expense. As Afonso grows older however other forces at court will try to control him, hoping to use the young king for their own designs.

While

Castile has had a series of weak rulers and strong nobles, the Castilians can be a serious threat to the Portuguese. The royal house of Avis has therefore pursued a policy of intermarriage with the Castilian royal family, hoping to ensure a lasting friendship and possibly strengthen future Portuguese claims to the Castilian throne.

Missions[edit | edit source]

Main article: Portuguese missions

As a Tier 1 country, Portugal has a large amount of missions and events, which are therefore listed on separate pages. Portugal's missions include the exploration and colonization of South America and the Caribbeans, Africa, Arabia, India and Indonesia, as well as trade control of Indonesia, Southern China and Japan. The Portuguese may also bring Iberia to their knees.

Events[edit | edit source]

Main article: Portuguese events

Portugal's events are focused around colonization and expansion in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as its volatile relations with its colonial competitors, particularly the Dutch.

Decisions[edit | edit source]

Since Portugal is in the Iberian culture group, it has the ability to form Spain militarily. Note that this is even possible (again) if Spain had been formed before by Castile, and then fully annexed. The AI will never do this, however.

id

Form Spanish Nation Militarily

Global expansion in newly discovered areas and the establishment of colonies is transforming Spain into one of the most powerful and wealthiest nations of our time. Spanish explorers are constantly moving into new lands and extending our borders. Immense amounts of gold and silver are being brought back to our motherland, filling the coffers of our state Treasury.

Potential requirements The country: was never an end-game nation. is not the Holy Roman Empire, the Papal States, Andalusia or Spain. is not a colonial nation. Is not France or The Knights Is not Muslim is in the Iberian culture group or has Basque as primary culture. If the country is AI-controlled then it: is not a custom nation is not a former colonial nation. if is Castile or Aragon, the other one is AI-controlled has at least 3 cities and Spain does not exist. is not Portugal Playing with normal or historical nations	Allow Spain does not exist. The country: has an administrative technology of at least 10. is not a subject nation other than a tributary state. is not at war is not a nomad nation. owns core provinces: Barcelona (213) Zaragoza (214) Valladolid (215) Salamanca (216) Toledo (219) València (220) Granada (223) Sevilla (224) No Muslim nation owns a province in Iberia region.

Provinces map All orange provinces must be owned and cored. Formation grants permanent claims on shaded area.

Effects The country: becomes Spain. gains 25 prestige. gets new missions.^[1] gets the event ‘New Traditions & Ambitions’, unless it is a custom nation. increases rank to kingdom, if it is a duchy removes all provinces from the Holy Roman Empire, if it is a member and not an elector or the emperor. gets a permanent claim on Iberia region, except Alentejo and Beira areas. gets “Increased Centralization” for 20 years, giving: −0.05 monthly autonomy change, +1 national unrest.

AI will always take this decision
AI gives "high priority" (400) to this decision

id

Flee to Brazil

Portugal is in ruins! The monarch and the court must make haste across the sea before our enemies descend upon us once more. Though it will be painful to leave Portugal behind, we shall surely create a glorious new Empire in Brazil.

Potential requirements

is not playing with random New World.
has not enacted a colonial nation formation decision before.
has not taken this decision before.
is playing with normal or historical nations.
is Portugal:
- is a monarchy.
- has fewer than 5 provinces in Europe.
- has a colonial subject nation with its capital in the Colonial Brazil region.

Allow

Administrative technology is at least 10.
is not a subject nation other than a tributary state.
is not at war.
has a colonial subject nation
- with its capital in the Colonial Brazil region
- owns at least 20 cities

Effects

The country:

changes to Brazil.
inherits all provinces belonging to owned colonial subject nation in the Brazil colonial region.
gets new missions.
loses 2 stability.
loses 25 prestige.
if in the christian religious group then
- Portugal will be released as a junior partner in a Personal Union under Brazil.
  - It gains cores on all owned provinces in Europe instead of Brazil's cores.
  - It will have with the Autocracy government reform.

If Rio de Janeiro (763) (or, if not owned, a random province in the Brazil colonial region) is part of the HRE, but its owner is not a member then:

the province is removed from the HRE.
the Holy Roman Emperor:
- gets the opinion modifier “Removed provinces from the Empire” towards the owner, worth −50 opinion with a yearly decay of 1.
- loses 1 imperial authority.

Rio de Janeiro (763) (or, if not owned, a random province in the Brazil colonial region) :

becomes the new capital of the owner country.

If the country:

is a member of the Holy Roman Empire and not an elector or the emperor
- then all its provinces are removed from the HRE.
does not have custom ideas
- then it gets the ‘New Traditions & Ambitions’ event.

id

Institute the Societas Jesu

His Holiness has approved a new missionary order called the Society of Jesus. However without royal support it will not thrive, shall we support the Jesuits?

Potential requirements

The country:

is Catholic.
is Portugal or Spain.
does not have the modifier ‘The Societas Jesu’.
does not have the modifier ‘Jesuits Expelled’.

Allow

The country:

has an administrative technology of at least 10.

Effects

The country gets the modifier ‘The Societas Jesu’ until the country:

either changes its religion
or gets the event ‘Expulsion of the Jesuit Order’

with the following effects:

+1% missionary strength,
+0.5 yearly papal influence.

Catholicism loses 2% reform desire.

Strategy[edit | edit source]

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for Portugal. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

Dominating Colonization[edit | edit source]

The usual strategy to play Portugal is just to ally Castille -> Spain and let them do most of the heavy lifting for you while you colonize and take Morocco. This strategy does the opposite and involves allying Aragon and preventing Spain from forming. Castille -> Spain is one of the biggest colonization competitors that Portugal has, along with Britain and France. Spain also has the habit of taking Flanders, which inevitably triggers the Dutch rebellion. If successful, the Netherlands also becomes another colonization competitor.

To prevent the Iberian Wedding from firing and giving Castille the PU over Aragon, you must reduce Castille to less than 25 provinces. They start with 32 provinces, so you must cause them to lose 8 provinces. The event can fire between 1450 and 1530 if both Castille and Aragon have rulers of different genders. The event has a mean time to happen of 10 years, or 1 year if Aragon does NOT have a regency (which is most of the time). In other words, the event has a very high chance of firing if Castille and Aragon have rulers of different genders between 1450 and 1530. This does not give you much time.

Opening moves[edit | edit source]

Most often you need to ally Aragon to fight Castille. Other less often options are to ally England or France or to attack Castille without allies if it attacks France because of England or if it attacks Granada, Morocco and Tunis. The latter option is the best since Morocco also may take provinces from Castille which you may easily retake later. To avoid loosing too much manpower quickly reach 4th level of military technology and avoid big one-on-one battles. Usually Aragon with its PU over Navarra and Naples will do most of the heavy lifting for you, but you need to build up your trade power in Sevilla as well so you can help out. The best thing that can happen is that Morocco’s subjects declare an independence war with Castille backing them, as this will weaken both threats to you. Morocco should lose their army and this will give you the chance to take Tanglers easily, and if possible, Fez. Fez has a mountain fort in a strategic location and it will block all attacks from the south easily.

Improve relations with England to +100 to complete the mission, then drop the alliance after allying Aragon. You do not want Britain to form as they will be a major colonization competitor. You want England to be as weak as possible, but most of the time they will easily conquer the British Isles because they have the advantage of starting with the English Channel node. It is essential that France maintain an alliance with Scotland and kick England off the mainland. If necessary, ally Scotland as well to deter England from attacking them. France is a good ally as well, but Aragon usually rivals them and Aragon is essential for fighting Castille. To stop France from consolidation and become too powerful involve France in costly wars, e.g. against Austria allied with Castille.

When you can afford it, use a cheap +2 trade power flagship to help protect trade in Sevilla. Make sure to always use some heavy ships to hunt pirates in Sevilla to prevent the coastal raids.

Attacking Castille[edit | edit source]

Try to time the first war while Castille is busy with another war. Make sure to allow allies to attach to your army/fleet and you should have no trouble defeating Castille unless they have very strong allies. Even if Castille allies Tunis or other states in Maghreb, they will be held up by your forts and any allies in Italy or Germany will usually attack Naples first, allowing you, Aragon and Navarra to outnumber Castille's army in the field.

After the war, take the state of Leon for yourself (5 provinces) and either take one more province or give it to Aragon. This will prevent the Iberian wedding from firing and buy your time. For follow up wars, take Asturias then Lower Andalucia for the COTs and then Gallicia. Completing the mission will give you claims on the rest. When the Castillan civil war fires, choose to support the rebels to make Castille weaker.

It is important to always call Aragon in when attacking Castille, if for no other reason than to prevent them from attacking Castille on their own and taking land. You do not want Aragon to get stronger as you will eventually have to attack them to conquer Iberia.

Colonization[edit | edit source]

Take exploration first followed by expansion. Colonize the Caribbean first, focusing on high dev provinces. Keep in mind that you do not need to colonize adjacent provinces as long as you have sea access, its fine to leave gaps to seize the high dev provinces first. Use the native repression policy and station 1 infantry unit to deal with native uprisings, and take the Portuguese settler increase splendor ability as soon as possible. The Caribbean’s high trade value will flow to Sevilla and will dramatically increase your income after its colonized. If you have troops to spare, use 3k with a conquistador to explore South America as well and try to find the seven cities. Expel minorities for free dev whenever possible.

Ideally, you would want to complete both exploration and expansion to unlock the colonial expansion policy, which will give you a large bonus to native assimilation, which is important for colonizing Africa due to the high native count there. But this will take a long time, and eventually France, England and perhaps Scotland as well will begin colonizing. Depending on how fast they start colonizing, you may need to colonize the Ivory Coast right after forming the Caribbean or you may have time to form Brazil first. It may be possible for you to limit your competitor’s colonization range by colonizing all the small islands and provinces along the way to the Ivory Coast, but this does not stop them from chartering companies to get started. The Ivory Coast will also bring in a very large amount of trade value to Sevilla.

If possible, charter a province with a COT from Jolof before colonizing there as there is a large penalty to chartering if you have already have at least one province there. Colonize the provinces with COTs and Estuaries first whenever possible. Swap to the Native assimilation policy before colonizing the Ivory Coast for the goods production bonus.

When colonizing Africa, an easy way to get more provinces there is to threaten war after fabricating claims on one of the small African states there. This will save you a lot of time and you can conserve manpower for wars in Iberia.

Limiting competitors[edit | edit source]

Ideally, England has been kicked off the mainland and is locked in a stalemate with Scotland. France does not usually rush exploration so this will give you more time, and Castille, your biggest competitor, is too busy trying to survive. Don’t be afraid to declare colonial wars to seize colonies, your colonial nations will occupy it for you so all you need to do is maintain naval supremacy for an easy win. Do not attack France when they start colonizing until you are ready to fight them though, as they have a land route to Iberia and you want their help to deal with Aragon.

Note that for the concede colonial region option to appear when offering peace or to get the colonialism casus belli, you must have your own colonial nation in the region or it will not appear. For trade companies, you must have an adjacent colony of your own to get the casus belli to get a casus belli to take it. Try to form your colonial nations with 5 provinces in South America, Mexico and Louisiana asap to get as much trade flowing to Sevilla as possible and make full use of the Treaty of Tordesillas. Even if someone breaks it, or isn't Catholic, having your own colonial nation there will give you the peace option to make them concede it to you which will save you a lot of time.

Age of reformation[edit | edit source]

It is best for Portugal to stay Catholic, as otherwise, AE from conquering Iberia will be a problem. Converting Iberia will also slow you down and generate a lot of unrest. The papacy also gives you an easy inflation reduction mechanic, and if you decide to form Spain via the decision, you need to be Catholic to take full advantage of Spain’s ideas.

That said, going Protestant does have advantages for a colonizer, they get a +15 settler bonus which your colonies will have as well, making them much faster early on. If you do want to go Protestant, you should only do it if you can spawn a center of reformation in your area and do not plan to form Spain.

Attacking Aragon[edit | edit source]

After Castille has been annexed, rival Aragon. Try to ally France to attack Aragon, and possibly allies in Maghreb, Italy or even the Mamluks to keep Naples occupied. With the Caribbean and Ivory Coast flowing into Sevilla, you should have plenty of money and near total control with all the COTs. This will also help keep Aragon poor. After dominating Sevilla, use light ships to either protect trade in Sati or privateer in Genoa.

Your first war should focus on annexing Navarra and forcing Aragon to release Naples as a subject. If you can ally Naples afterwards, they will also help distract Aragon in later wars by taking Sicily. If France is your ally, fighting Aragon should be pretty easy as any of Aragon’s allies will have to attack through France to help and France will easily be able to stop them. You also have all of Castille at this point and a much better economy.

After taking Iberia, you will probably need to prepare for war with France to limit their colonization unless you get lucky and get a PU over France. While France is powerful, you should be stronger with all of Iberia and a much better economy at this point. You can start privateering the English Channel to prevent England and France from getting money. Building a massive colonial empire for the rest of the game should be easy, as France is the only potential threat to you.

Circumnavigation[edit | edit source]

Do not attempt this without sufficient fleet basing rights or your fleet will eventually sink. It should be pretty safe to circumnavigate if you have a province on the far side of South America (I had a province on the far side of Panama), the Cape of Good Hope and fleet basing rights in India or Malacca.