Portuguese

Portuguese may refer to:

See also

Portuguese Guyanese

A Portuguese Guyanese is a Guyanese whose ancestors came from Portugal, or a Portuguese who has Guyanese citizenship.

History

The history of Portuguese Guyanese community relates directly with the end of slavery. After the abolition of slavery in 1834, the planters of British Guiana sought alternative sources of labour. They were eager to recruit white labourers in order to bolster the proportion of white to coloured residents in the colony.

In 1834, the first Portuguese people arrived from the Portuguese island of Madeira, having been sponsored by a coalition of planters and by the colonial government. Between 1834 and 1882, some 30,645 Portuguese arrived in Guyana, the vast majority from Madeira, but others from the Azores Islands. Mixed race Portuguese speaking elements from Cape Verde and Brazil also were brought in.

The Madeiran Portuguese, or simply Madeirans as they came to be known, soon shunned working in the fields given the high mortality rate due to tropical diseases. They settled in Georgetown, New Amsterdam and other towns in Guyana and dedicated themselves into the venture of the retail and wholesale trades. By 1851, 173 out of 296 shops in Georgetown were Portuguese-owned, while the figure was 28 out of 52 in New Amsterdam. In 1891, Portuguese numbered 4.3% of the population of Guyana.

Portuguese wine

Portuguese wine is the result of traditions introduced to the region by ancient civilizations, such as the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and mostly the Romans. Portugal started to export its wines to Rome during the Roman Empire. Modern exports developed with trade to England after the Methuen Treaty in 1703. From this commerce a wide variety of wines started to be grown in Portugal. And, in 1758, one of the first wine-producing region of the world, the Região Demarcada do Douro was created under the orientation of Marquis of Pombal, in the Douro Valley. Portugal has two wine producing regions protected by UNESCO as World Heritage: the Douro Valley Wine Region (Douro Vinhateiro) and Pico Island Wine Region (Ilha do Pico Vinhateira). Portugal has a big variety of local kinds, producing a very wide variety of different wines with distinctive personality.

History

Romans did much to expand and promote viticulture in their settlements in the province of Lusitania (mainly modern south Portugal). Wines were produced across the territory for both local consumption as well as export to Rome.