The Portuguese Empire existed at the same time as the Renaissance.
Portuguese Empire . It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002 . When Philip II of Spain , I of Portugal , inherited the Portuguese crown in 1580 , this began a 60-year union between Spain and Portugal that has since been given the historiographic term of the Iberian Union . The Renaissance ( [ rᵻˈneɪsəns ] , [ rɛnəˈsɑːns ] ) was a period in European history , from the 14th to the 17th century , regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history .