Abstract
During the last quarter of the sixteenth century, West Central Africa became an important stage for political and commercial disputes involving the succession crisis for the Portuguese throne, the patronage, and the enslaved trade. Different institutions, groups and agents disputed the ecclesiastical prerogatives and rents that were associated with trade. D. Henrique was the architect of the Luso-African patronage, developed a policy of influence over the Military Orders and the Inquisition, and found in the Society of Jesus its main ally, defining the kings of Congo as enemies and the conquest of Angola as a strategy. However, the new societies and interest groups established on the island of São Tomé and in different parts of West Central Africa, and their Euro-Atlantic connections, had great autonomy in relation to the monarchy. When Philip II incorporated Portugal into his Crown, his main objective was to bring together the two shores of the Mar Oceano. At the same time, he had to recognize and rearrange the pieces of a complex political puzzle.
Keywords
patronage; Hispanic monarchy; Atlantic complementarity; slave trade; necropolitics