%0 Journal Article
%T From the Age of Discovery to White Fleet: Portuguese Diaspora in the World and Portuguese Pre-Emigration Contacts with Canada
%A Kijewska-Trembecka, Marta
%J Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora
%V 2018 (XLIV)
%R 10.4467/25444972SMPP.18.011.8920
%N Vol. 167, issue 1
%P 241-257
%K Portuguese, explorers, emigration, fi shermen, White Fleet
%@ 2081-4488
%D 2018
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/smpp/article/od-wielkich-odkryc-po-white-fleet-diaspora-portugalska-w-swiecie-i-przedemigracyjne-kontakty-portugalczykow-z-kanada
%X 
	The Portuguese are undoubtedly the greatest explorers and travelers in history. From the 15th to the 17th century, they ruled the world’s oceans, but being a small country they quickly lost their struggle for infl uence in most newly discovered areas to stronger European powers.
	At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese sailing ships reached the coast of today’s Brazil, which for over three centuries became the pearl in the crown of Portuguese overseas possessions for centuries. It was also Brazil where the Portuguese emigrated most often.
	However, they were leaving not only to their colonies. Portugal almost never was a prosperous country for most of its inhabitants. In the period of 100 years, from the end of the 19th century to the 1990s, about 4 million people left the country. According to statistics, in 2007, almost 5 million Portuguese lived outside their country. The largest number of them lived in  the Americas – 2.8 million, while across Europe the Portuguese Diaspora in 2007 was as large as almost 1.6 million people.
	Not only do the Portuguese migrate around the world, but they are also intrepid fishermen who fished for over 500 years on the Grand Banks, on the north-western coast of today’s Canada. In the 20th century, their presence in the East Canadian fisheries was dominated by the so-called White Fleet, Frota Branca