Preliminary Programme

During the early modern period, Portuguese emigration to the conquests of the Iberian empires was mainly formed by men, either married or single, women staying home to raise children, cultivate the land, or work in urban environments. Even if they were not transnational in the literal sense of the word, transoceanic expansion impacted their lives in several ways. Some became poor and had to survive on charity, whilst others inherited from brothers, husbands or uncles, often driven by the need to protect their sexual honor by granting them a marriage dowry. A few obtained an autonomy they would not enjoy if they had to submit to a male figure, becoming rich by their own agency. This paper explores this range of situations according to a relational approach in order to uncover the family and social relationships that shaped their lives. (Show less)

My paper focuses on women in a transnational context. The paper focuses on a small group of religious women from Spain, who travelled to the Philippine Islands in 1621, in order to contribute to the colonization of South East Asia. There they were to found one of the first Catholic convents in the city of Manila, under the direction of one of them, Jeronima de la Asuncion. The paper shows the ways in which women - supported by rich donors mostly from Spain – actually managed to travel and to reach their final destination. All this was done at a time when travelling by sea could prove rather difficult. Recent research in this field has demonstrated that women were actively involved in trade and even engaged in long distance trade, showing their clear intent to participate and form partnerships that would allow them to trade on their own. My paper speculates on the reasons why a small group of religious women were chosen for this task. (Show less)

This paper intends to analyze to what extent Portuguese widows were able to lead transatlantic trades after the death of their husbands. Our case study will focus on widows of the city of Porto, which had an important trade connection to the Portuguese empire, especially with Brazil. Some of these widows were active traders, embarking and receiving goods from the Empire and revealing a great knowledge of the market. However, in some occurrences widows were harmed by their husbands' business partners, perhaps based on the assumption that contracts with women were not to be taken seriously. Nevertheless, widows petitioned when some actions caused serious obstacles to the continuity of business and damaged their income. Finally, we would like to tackle if some of these widows were running their business alongside their sons and to what extent these were family businesses that should be transmitted to the next generations. (Show less)