Located on the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent, Goa functioned as an integral port to Western European, specifically Portuguese, colonists, merchants, priests, and sailors. In the late sixteenth century, Portugal acquired Goa as a territorial possession. As with its other colonies, Portugal maintained a policy of “assimilation” with the inhabitants of Goa.[1]The policy attempted to raise the colonized people to the preeminent status of its Portuguese colonizers. Eventually, the Portuguese Republic recognized the colony of Goa as “equal” and consequently, awarded the region equal civic privileges to Lisbon. Resultantly, Goa economically boomed and grew into a central trading destination and “worth” acknowledgement in Western European reference books and other materials, such as Civitates Orbis Terrarum.
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