Portuguese Empire

State · 1502–1823 CE · at its largest around 1820 CE

Portuguese navigators such as Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India, and Lisbon grew rich on spices, sugar and gold. The empire linked Europe, Africa, Asia and Brazil for the first time, spreading Portuguese language and Catholicism but also driving the Atlantic slave trade.

On its lands while it lasted

Mali Empire (c. 1235–1670 CE): West African empire founded by Sundiata Keita that at its height in the 14th century stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Niger bend and controlled major gold sources.
Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1390–1914 CE): Central African kingdom with its capital at Mbanza Kongo; after Portuguese contact in 1483 its rulers adopted Christianity, and it later became deeply entangled in the Atlantic slave trade.
Kingdom of Mutapa (c. 1430–1760 CE): Shona kingdom between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers that succeeded Great Zimbabwe and traded gold with Swahili and later Portuguese merchants.
Rise of the Inca Empire (1438–1533 CE): Under Pachacuti from 1438 the Inca expanded from Cusco to rule Tawantinsuyu, the largest empire of the pre-Columbian Americas, stretching along the Andes.
Inca road system (Qhapaq Ñan) (c. 1438–1533 CE): The Inca built a road network of some 40,000 km, whose main Andean spine ran from southern Colombia through Quito and Cusco to central Chile, with relay runners (chasquis), storehouses and suspension bridges.
Songhai Empire (c. 1464–1591 CE): Empire centred on Gao that under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad became one of the largest states in African history before falling to a Moroccan invasion in 1591.
Amerigo Vespucci’s voyage along the coast of Brazil (1501–1502 CE): Sailing for Portugal, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci followed the Brazilian coast far to the south. His letters arguing that these lands were a new continent led the mapmaker Waldseemüller to name it America in 1507.
Middle Passage (c. 1526–1866 CE): The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. Of about 12.5 million people embarked between the 16th and 19th centuries, some 1.8 million died on the crossing.
Potosí (1545 CE): Mining city founded below the silver mountain Cerro Rico, whose vast output, largely extracted through forced indigenous labour, fuelled the Spanish Empire and global trade.
Slave trade, Angola to Brazil (c. 1550–1850 CE): The largest single branch of the Atlantic slave trade carried millions of captives from West Central Africa, above all Luanda, directly to Brazilian ports such as Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, until Brazil ended imports in 1850.
Ashanti Empire (1701–1901 CE): Akan state founded by Osei Tutu with its capital at Kumasi, which grew wealthy on gold and trade and resisted British expansion in a series of wars.
José de San Martín (1778 CE – 1850 CE): Argentine general who led campaigns that freed Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spanish rule.
Simón Bolívar (1783 CE – 1830 CE): Caracas-born leader who led the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spain, known as El Libertador.
Shaka (c. 1787 CE – 1828 CE): King who transformed the Zulu into a powerful military kingdom in the 1810s–1820s; assassinated by his half-brothers in 1828.
Independence of Brazil (1822 CE): Prince Pedro declared Brazil independent from Portugal by the Ipiranga stream in São Paulo and became Emperor Pedro I.