Portugal in the Age of Discovery
For additional context, see History of Portugal and Portuguese Empire.Portugal in the period of discoveries (1415-1499) discovered an eastern route to India that doubled the
Cape of Good Hope. Along with Colonizing select areas of Africa, the Portuguese established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia. However, it found its government in conflict with the governors of overseas provinces, as many of the governors kept the fortunes that they made.
As the south-westernmost people of Europe, the Portuguese were the natural leaders of that work of exploration which had been carried on during the middle ages. The long shoreline of their country, with its fine harbors and rivers flowing westward to the ocean, had been the training-ground of a race of adventurous seamen. It was impossible, moreover, to expand or reach new markets except by sea: the interposition of
Castile and
Aragon, so often hostile, completely prevented direct land routes to other European countries. Consequently the Portuguese merchants sent their goods by sea to
England,
Flanders, or the
Hanse towns. The whole history of the nation had also inspired a desire for fresh conquests among its leaders. Portugal had won and now held its independence by the sword. The long struggle to expel the Moors, with the influence of foreign crusaders and the military orders, had given a religious sanction to the desire for martial fame. Nowhere was the ancient crusading spirit so active a political force. To make war upon Islam seemed to the Portuguese their natural destiny and their duty as Christians.
The Portuguese
economy had benefited from its connections with advanced mouslem states. A money economy was well enough established for 15th-century workers in the countryside as well as in the towns to be paid in
currency. The agriculture of the countryside had diversified to the point where grain was imported from
Morocco (a symptom of an economy dependent upon Portugal's), while specialised crops occupied former grain-growing areas: vineyards, olives, or the sugar factories of the
Algarve, later to be reproduced in
Brazil (Braudel 1985). Most of all, the
House of Aviz dynasty that had come to power in 1385 marked the semi-eclipse of the conservative land-oriented aristocracy (See
The Consolidation of the Monarchy in Portugal.) Also, due to their close connections with several Islamic kingdoms, a constant exchange of cultural ideals made Portugal a centre of knowledge and technological development. Due to these connections with Islamic kingdoms, many mathematicians and experts in naval technology appeared in Portugal, as it became the scientific centre of that time. The Portuguese government impeled this even further by taking full advantage of this and by creating several important research centers in Portugal, among them there was the Institute of Sagres, were Portuguese researchers made several breakthroughs in mathematical fields and especially in naval technology, both in transport and in equipment.
It was the genius of
Prince Henry the Navigator that coordinated and utilized all these tendencies towards expansion. Prince Henry placed at the disposal of his captains the vast resources of the
Order of Christ, of which he was the head, and the best information and most accurate instruments and maps that could be obtained. He sought to effect a junction with the half-fabulous Christian Empire of "
Prester John" by way of the "Western Nile" (the
Senegal), and, in alliance with that potentate, to crush the Turks and liberate
Palestine. The conception of an ocean route to
India appears to have originated after his death. On land he again defeated the Moors, who attempted to re-take
Ceuta in
1418; but in an expedition to
Tangier, undertaken in
1436 by King Edward (1433-1438), the Portuguese army was defeated, and could only escape destruction by surrendering as a hostage Prince Ferdinand, the king's youngest brother. Ferdinand, known as "the Constant", from the fortitude with which he endured captivity, died unransomed in
1443. By sea Prince Henry's captains continued their exploration of
Africa and the
Atlantic Ocean. In
1433 Cape Bojador was doubled; in
1434 the first consignment of
slaves was brought to
Lisbon; and slave trading soon became one of the most profitable branches of Portuguese commerce. The Senegal was reached in 1445,
Cape Verde was passed in the same year, and in 1446
Alvaro Fernandes pushed on almost as far as
Sierra Leone. This was probably the farthest point reached before the Navigator died (1460).
Meanwhile colonization progressed in the
Azores and
Madeira, where sugar and wine were now produced; above all, the gold brought home from
Guinea stimulated the commercial energy of the Portuguese. It had become clear that, apart from their religious and scientific aspects, these voyages of discovery were highly profitable. Under
Alphonso V (1443-1481), surnamed the African, the
Gulf of Guinea was explored as far as
Cape St Catherine, and three expeditions (1458, 1461, 1471) were sent to Morocco; in 1471 Arzila (Asila) and Tangier were captured from the Moors. Under John II (1481-1495) the fortress of
São Jorge da Mina, the modern Elmina, was founded for the protection of the Guinea trade in.
Diogo Cão, or Can, discovered the Congo in 1482 and reached Cape Cross in 1486;
Bartolomeu Dias doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, thus proving that the
Indian Ocean was accessible by sea. After 1492 the discovery of the West Indies by Columbus rendered desirable a delimitation of the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of exploration. This was accomplished by the
treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494) which modified the delimitation authorized by
Pope Alexander VI in two bulls issued on the 4th of May, 1493. The treaty gave to Portugal all lands which might be discovered east of a straight line drawn from the Arctic Pole to the Antarctic, at a distance of 370 leagues west of Cape Verde. Spain received the lands discovered west of this line. As, however, the known means of measuring longitude were so inexact that the line of demarcation could not in practice be determined (see J. de Andrade Corvo in Journal des Sciencias Mathematicas, xxxi. 147-176, Lisbon, 1881), the treaty was subject to very diverse interpretations. On its provisions were based both the Portuguese claim to
Brazil and the Spanish claim to the
Moluccas (see
History of the Malay Archipelago). The treaty was chiefly valuable to the Portuguese as a recognition of the prestige they had acquired. That prestige was enormously enhanced when, in 1497-1499,
Vasco da Gama completed the voyage to India.
Christopher Columbus' discovery of what they thought was
India at that time, is something that historians diverge in terms of the consequences that lead to this discovery. One theory which has some support, due to recent proof that has come to light, is that Columbus was indeed Portuguese as stated initially, but he was a spy from the Portuguese kingdom sent to Spain to redirect Spain's efforts elsewhere the territories Portugal had its focus on. However, this is controversial. Actions such as this would come as no surprise, though, since competition between the two kingdoms was intense and both had their secret service networks which were in constant conflict with one another, by providing misleading information and in hiding territories and trade routes discovered by each country (but especially Portugal) by either keeping them concealed or by providing false dates and also false locations. This constant secrecy effort was what led to the creation of many "false" documents and thus many of the remaining documents from that time may not be reliable. As a consequence some historians believe that territories such as Brazil or even several African locations along its coastline, may have been discovered before the known dates.
Possessing only a population of two million people, the colonization effort of several colonies scattered all around the entire coast of Africa and its surrounding islands, Brazil, the Indies and also in several other regions in the Indic such as in
Malaysia,
Japan,
China,
Indonesia and also
Timor was proven to have been a very difficult task for the Portuguese empire, thus a very high level of secrecy concerning every trade route and colony had to be maintained in order to preserve the union of the empire. This extreme secrecy was also impeled by the every constant competition with the Spanish and as a consequence, many documents that could reach Spanish hands or any other European countries were in fact fake documents showing fake dates and facts, thus misleading any other nation's possible efforts. Due to these extreme secrecy policies by the Portuguese during the Discoveries Period, many reference documents concerning dates of the Portuguese discoveries may very well be fake, much to modern historians frustration, due to their inability to determione if they are true or not. As a consequence of this, but also due to other proof, many of the dates showed in these documents are said by many historians to be false, and that the real dates of discovery of many places such as Brazil may be as early as 1480. In fact, many Portuguese historians long suspect that by the time of Treaty of Tordesilhas, John II may have already known the existence of Brazil, thus justifying John II wish to further push the influence line further and further west.
While the Crown was thus acquiring new possessions, its authority in Portugal was temporarily overshadowed by the growth of aristocratic privilege. After the death of Edward, further attempts to curb the power of the nobles were made by his brother, D. Pedro, duke of Coimbra, who acted as regent during the minority of
Alphonso V of Portugal (1438-1447). The head of the aristocratic opposition was the Duke of Braganza, who contrived to secure the sympathy of the king and the dismissal of the regent. The quarrel led to civil war, and in May 1449, D. Pedro was defeated and killed. Thenceforward the grants made by John I were renewed, and extended on so lavish a scale that the Braganza estates alone comprised about a third of the whole kingdom. An unwise foreign policy simultaneously injured the royal prestige, for Alphonso married his own niece, Joanna, daughter of
Henry IV of Castile, and claimed that kingdom in her name. At the
Battle of Toro, in 1476, he was defeated by
Ferdinand and Isabella, and in 1478 he was compelled to sign the treaty of Alcantara, by which Joanna was relegated to a convent. His successor, John II (1481-1495) reverted to the policy of matrimonial alliances with Castile and friendship with England. Finding, as he said, that the liberality of former kings had left the Crown. "no estates except the high roads of Portugal," he determined to crush the feudal nobility and seize its territories. A cortes held at Evora (1481) empowered judges nominated by the Crown to administer justice in all feudal domains. The nobles resisted this infringement of their rights; but their leader, Ferdinan, duke of Braganza, was beheaded for high treason in 1483; in 1484 the king stabbed to death his own brother-in-law, Ferdinand, duke of Vizeu; and 80 other members of the aristocracy were afterwards executed. Thus John "the Perfect," as he was called, assured the supremacy of the Crown. He was succeeded in 1495 by Emanuel (Manoel) I, who was named "the Great" or "the Fortunate," because in his reign the sea route to India was discovered and a Portuguese Empire founded.
*
Braudel, Fernand,
The Perspective of the World 1985
*
Portugal*
History of Portugal*
The Establishment of the Monarchy in Portugal (
1095-
1279)
*
The Consolidation of the Monarchy in Portugal (
1279-
1415)
*Portugal in the period of discoveries (
1415-
1499)
*
Portuguese Empire (
1499-
1999)
*See also:
Lusitania*
Portuguese colonization of the Americas
