In the reign of Joam IIL, who succeeded his father Manoel in 1521, Indian discoveries and commerce were still further extended. But the introduction of the Inquisition, in 1536, which, as in Spain, was at first intended only against the Jews, greatly contributed to increase the misery caused by bad administration and a vicious course of policy pursued with regard to the colonies. The Jews were extermi nated, or fled from Portugal : but although the object for which that tribunal was instituted no longer existed, it still continued a powerful political weapon in the hands of the absolute kings of Portugal. As injurious in its consequences as the Inquisition was the admission of the Jesuits into Portugal, under Joam, the first European monarch who permitted them to enter his dominions. The education of his grkndeon Sebastian, the heir-apparent to the throne, waa likewise entrusted to the Jesuits, who inspired the young prince with that spirit of bigotry and that fanatical ambition which led to his death. Scarcely however bad the young prince reached his fourteenth year—the period of his majority—when be began to turn all his thoughts towards the prosecution of the African war; and he sailed in 1574, iu opposition to the remonstrances of his wiser counsellors. Four years afterwards, in August, 1578, the memorable battle was fought by which Portugal lost her king, and began rapidly to sink from her former prosperous condition.
After the short reign of Cardinal Enrique, Sebastian's uncle, who was proclaimed in 1578 and died in 1530, Philip II. of Spain, the most powerful candidate for the throne, obtained possession of it, and Portugal continued subject to the kings of Spain till the reign of the minister of Philip IV., when the Portuguese entered into a conapiraoy, and on the 1st of December, 1640, Joam de Braganca, a descendant of the old royal family, was placed on the throne. The war with Spain, which was the result of this measure, and lasted during the reign of Joam, as well as that of hie son Alfonso VI., was terminated in 1668, by a treaty of peace, and a cession on the part of Spain of all her claims on Portugal.
Joam IV., the first Portuguese king of the house of Braganca, died in 1656. He was succeeded by his eon Alfonso VI. A treaty of peace was also concluded with Holland, by which Brazil, which had been seized by the Dutch, was restored to Portugal. Pedro IL, who succeeded his brother Alfonso VI. in 1683, took part with the allies against Philip V. of Spain. From this time date the relations and alliance of England with Portugal. A commercial treaty with that kingdom had already been made, under the first sovereign of the house of Braganca. A new one was concluded in 1703 by the English Mr. Methuen, which secured to England the advantages of the newly discovered mines in Brazil. Durma the long reign of Joam V., which lasted from 1707 to 1750, some vigour was displayed In regard to the foreign relations, and several attempts were made for the promotion of the national welfare at home. Under his son and
successor Josh I., who ascended the throne of Portugal iu 1750, the spirit of reform and Improvement was still farther extouded. In 1757 the Jesuits were deprived of the post of confessors to the royal family, and forbidden the court ; two years afterwards they were banished from the kingdom and their estates were confiscated.
Maria Francisca Isabel, eldest daughter of Jos6, succeeded him in 1777. During the reign of Maria, the power remained almost entirely in the bands of en ignorant nobility and of a still more ignorant and anibitioua clergy. In 1789, on account of a serious indisposition of the queen, her eldest son, Joam Maria Joed, Prince of Brazil (the title of the prince royal until 1816), was declared regent, and soon after, her malady baring terminated In mental alienation, the prince was declared regent with full repl powers. Portugal for some years preserved a mere shadow of independence by the greatest sacrifices, till at last Oeneral Junot entered that country, and the house of Braganca, was declared by Napoleon Bonaparte to have forfeited the throne, owing to the refusal of Josm VI. to seize the British merchan dise in his dominions. The regent now put himself entirely under the protection of the English, and in November, 1807, embarked for Junot entered the capital on the next. day, and Portugal was in every respect treated as a conquered country. This led to the Peninsular War, in which the Portuguese now took an active part. On the death of Maria Isabella in 1810, Joam VI. was called to the throne of Portugal, which he occupied conjointly with that of Brazil, where he cootinued 1 3 reside. In August, 1820, the cry for liberty which was raised in Spain, was responded to in Portugal, and a revolution commenced, in which the army and the citizens acted in concert. On the 15th of September, 1820, all the troops and the citizens of Lisbon unanimously proclaimed the constitution, and the cessation of the absolute government which had hitherto prevailed in Portugal. A provisional government was immediately established, which acted in union with the junta at Oporto. In the meantime Count Palmella, the head of the regency, was dispatched to Rio Janeiro with an account of what had passed, and a petition that the king Joam VI. or the prince royal Dom Pedro would return to Lisbon. The revolution was unattended either by violence or bloodshed. The Cortes having assembled in 1521, under the presidency of the archbishop of Braga, various laws were passed, among which freedom of person and property, the liberty of the press, legal equality and the abolition of privileges, the admission of citizens to all offices, and the sovereignty of the people, were passed almost unanimously.