Starting from 1341, with the first expedition to the Canary Islands, and with the expeditions to India, Brazil and Japan, the Portuguese people opened their vision towards the unknown world. In addition to reaching the goods they began to trade (gold, silver, spices, silk, sugar and slaves), Portugal also came out of its shell and for the first time in its history had the taste of building an empire. Eager to conquer new lands, as well as overseas colonies, the young king Sebastião began an expedition to Africa, but died in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir on 4 August 1578, and so the conquest of Africa failed. . After the death of the king, the succession crisis erupted and King Philip II of Spain peacefully incorporated Portugal into Spain by attracting the Portuguese nobility and some of the clergy. During the United Iberian Peninsula era between 1580 and 1640, which followed the golden age of the descobrimentos, Portugal was under the sovereignty of the Spanish crown, but maintained an independent law, currency and government. Meanwhile, the Portuguese nobility began to lose its power and several Portuguese colonial possessions came under the administration of the Dutch government. These events began a period of restoration and striving for independence from Spanish sovereignty. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To fuel this restoration effort, the myth of Sebastianism was introduced into society. It was believed in the country that one day, on a foggy morning, the Portuguese king Dom Sebastião, who disappeared in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, would return to Portugal to lead the country into a new era of prosperity, just as it was believed that one day Jesus will return to Earth to save humanity once and for all. In his epic poems, Luís Camões ennobled Portugal's past glory by celebrating Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India and emphasizing the higher purpose of Portuguese civilization. The book has been structured thematically in terms of content. In the first theme the poem refers to the discovery of Vasco de Gama, in the second theme to the history of Portugal, in the third theme to the Portuguese people and heroes and in the fourth theme to mythology. Being examples of classical epic poetry, 'Os Lusíadas' seems to be inspired by Greek culture. The following verses are taken from Os Lusíadas: "These are stories of weapons and of matchless men / Who took to the sea from the west coast of Portugal / And walked to Taprobana and beyond / Across oceans that no one had ever faced before, / And in fights and crises withstood their own, / Drawing on more than human abilities, in war / Between distant peoples, to bear the name / Of a New Kingdom, and earn it immortal fame”. Mensagem by Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa. In those poems he promoted the belief that whatever happens to Portugal, the king will return and the country will rise again, the ideal of O Quinto Império, introduced into society by the Camões. to nurture society to keep alive the spirit of one day establishing an empire again. The Jesuit priest António Vieira also believed that, after the great empires led by Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon or Assyrians), Cyrus (Persia), Pericles (Greece) and Caesar. (Rome), the Fifth Empire will be led by the king of Portugal and the Christian world will join. He also emphasized the importance of history in his Sermões book series as: "The purpose of the men who invented books was to guard the memory of things past, against the tyranny of time and against the oblivion of.