The Dawn of Portuguese India — lecture by Ilya Fraint

THE DAWN OF PORTUGUESE INDIA: DUBROVNIK AND GOA, A CONNECTION ACROSS CENTURIES

Dubrovnik, Goa and the Croatian imprint: these may sound like words from different operas, but it turns out there is an invisible link between them.

On 8 August historian Ilya Fraint will talk about the small settlement of São Braz, today a suburb of Goa. From the 16th to the 20th centuries it was under Portuguese control, and among its inhabitants were many Croatian merchants and sailors from Dubrovnik.

We will travel to 16th-century India to trace the history of the first Ragusan trading post in India and to understand the role Dubrovnik merchants played in the early European colonial history of the region.

We will discuss:

• why merchants from Dubrovnik ended up in Portuguese India;
• how the first Ragusan trading post in India was organized;
• what European colonialism on the peninsula looked like in the 16th–17th centuries;
• how trade routes connected the Adriatic and South Asia;
• and what this history can tell us about Dubrovnik as a city that for centuries existed at the crossroads of worlds.

Ilya Fraint is a professional historian, a graduate of the history faculties of Moscow State University (MGU) and the Humboldt University of Berlin, and a former lecturer. He specializes in economic and colonial history.

Date and time: 8 August (Saturday) 17:00.
Cost: free, donations welcome.
Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/e9z8stFHUZdGM7u88 (Vojvode Dobrnjca 48, Belgrade)