The European Voyages of Exploration of the 15th century

INTRODUCTION
In the early 15th century the sea-faring countries of Europe were poised to expand their influence in the rest of the world through a program of sustained and systematic exploration. In some cases the motive for exploration was profit, in others, exploration was fanned by the quest for knowledge about the world in which Europeans lived. Still others justified their actions as the logical extension of the Crusades of Christianity against Islam. Although Europe was, by and large, a self-sustaining continent, Europeans had acquired a taste for luxury items that had long been traded from the East (Persia, India, China, for example) and whose demand far exceeded the supply since 1250. The lure of profits from the cotton, silk, precious stones, exotic spices, and slaves that were traded prompted Europeans to find a better way to directly access these items. European and Eastern traders had established overland routes through central Asia that served as direct links for these exotic goods, but even regional overland trade was risky and costly. By the 13th century Europeans had developed a sophisticated maritime commerce that included the navigation of the Mediterranean Sea, the North and Baltic Seas, and the passable stretch of Western Europe's coast between them. This brought greater seafaring experience and greater knowledge of navigation technologies. The long Mediterranean galleys renowned for their manoeuvrability were combined with the sturdy round ships of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This resulted in a new category of ship that could withstand a variety of maritime conditions and could still carry large cargoes. These new ships were instrumental to the Europeans adventurers who sought out a cheaper and more practical waterborne trade with the East. For centuries, the East was a potent image for Europeans. The legacy of the Roman and Ancient Greek civilisations that had regular trading and diplomatic contact with India and China (the Han Dynasty) inspired the Europeans of the 14th and 15th centuries to attempt to establish their own eastern empires. Alexander the Great's empire, for example, consisted of territories in both Greece and India, thus greatly facilitating contact between western and eastern Eurasia. Links between the Europeans and the Asians were disrupted by barbarian conquests in China, India and Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries C.E. (Common Era). In the 8th century Islam engulfed North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, Spain and France, igniting hostilities between the Christian and Muslim kingdoms that led to the cut off of trade routes to the East. For centuries Europe's only knowledge of the East was limited and often second-hand. Merchants like Marco Polo, gleaned valuable information about the East while looking for new trade routes. Europeans were so inspired by travelling accounts like Marco Polo's, that they were determined to re-establish routes of their own to the riches of the East. To do this the European worldview began to conceptualise a "New World" beyond known territory and the East came to symbolise this. The "New World" and its heathen population challenged and inspired the Roman Catholic Church to fulfil its selfproclaimed destiny of being the one universal faith of humanity. As God's representative on Earth the Pope provided the moral authority that legitimised European exploration and subsequent exploitation of new territory. For example, in 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued a papal bull allowing the enslavement of "pagans and infidels", justifying all European slaving expeditions to Africa. In order to spread Christ's message to heathen masses while protecting the Church's sovereignty over the new territories, the Church sent missionaries to accompany many of the voyages of overseas expansion. The Church eventually granted kingdoms like Portugal and Spain political sovereignty over these territories, clearly establishing the Church's ultimate authority in European society. Initially, exploration took the form of small-scale ventures that were financed by independent businessmen. Some were members of the nobility like Prince Henry, and others were members of the merchant class. These early ventures took the form of raid and trade excursions. Ships were sent along the coast of Africa to find inhabited areas where Europeans could trade or raid goods and slaves. These early independent excursions by merchants and adventurers proved that exploration was profitable and eventually European monarchs began to take a greater interest. Thus exploration evolved from cautious, small-scale operations to a systematic approach that incorporated royal patronage, substantial capital and longrange planning. The Iberian kingdoms of Portugal and Spain were early pioneers that sponsored numerous voyages of exploration. The Portuguese focused primarily on a trading empire while the Spanish sought a territorial empire they could colonise. The contemporary written accounts of exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries often use words like "luck" and "accidents." Nevertheless, the persistence and determination of certain individuals, like Prince Henry the Navigator, sustained and nurtured exploration during its infancy. This persistence was echoed by explorers like Gil Eanes, Christopher Columbus, and Bartolomeu Dias, who overcame the tremendous physical and mental barriers of ocean exploration. Even when basic fears about the existence of sea-monsters or sailing over the edge of a flat earth were conquered, there was a myriad of other misfortunes that could befall European explorers at sea or onshore in a distant land with hostile inhabitants. Navigation techniques were rudimentary and maps were sometimes a strange mixture of fact and wishful thinking. Supplies could spoil or run out entirely. Crews could rebel against sailing to distant and uncharted parts of the globe and mutiny against their captains. Above all, the seas themselves were unpredictable and dangerous. 1

THE IBERIAN PIONEERS: PORTUGAL & SPAIN Geography:

Modern day Portugal and Spain make up the Iberian Peninsula. Iberia is surrounded by water except for its northern boundary where the Pyrenees divide Spain and France. To the east lays the Mediterranean Sea and to the west lays the Atlantic Ocean. The southernmost point of Spain is separated from northern Africa by the Strait of Gibraltar, which is about 64 kilometres long and varies in width from about thirteen to thirty-nine kilometres.

Modern Spain and Portugal

Iberia was invaded in 711 by African Muslim armies that succeeded in conquering most of the southern regions of the peninsula within seven years. This began a 700-year intermittent struggle for control over Iberia between the Christians and the Muslims who inhabited the southern portion. The most active years of conflict were between 850 and 1250. During this period the struggles were named the Reconquista and were accompanied by the religious zeal of the crusades. The Reconquista was at once a religious crusade against the Moors, a succession of military expeditions in search of plunder, and a popular migration. Powerful members of the clergy participated fully in this Reconquista by creating popular support for the enterprise, lobbying for support from the various monarchies, and retaining their own private armies to conquer land for their Church. The Reconquista was also a blend of private and public enterprise. It was common for the Iberian monarchies to make contracts with the leaders of military expeditions. These contracts, known as Capitulaciones, reserved certain rights of sovereignty to the Crown over the newly conquered territories in exchange for a guarantee of mercedes, or rewards, for the leader of the expedition. Usually the mercedes consisted of the Crown granting a hereditary title that included special military powers and rights of government over the new frontier to the expedition's leader. It also included the right to any spoils of conquest such as movable property and captives.

Armour from the Military Orders of Alcantar & Santiago Two essential components of the Capitulaciones were the religious purpose of Christianizing the peninsula and the royal sanctioning of the endeavour. Without these the expedition would lack any moral or legal authority. All of the parties involved benefited from placing this contract in written form in order to preserve the contract accurately to insure inheritance. The noble families that gained land under this system would have to prove their title by presenting their copy of the Capitulacione whenever there was a change in the monarchy. This system would become essential in the "New World" to defining the Crown's relationship with the various conquistadors by the 16th century.

The Iberian Kingdoms: In the early 15th century five independent kingdoms occupied the Iberian Peninsula; Portugal, Navarre, Castile, Aragon, and the last Muslim stronghold of Granada. In 1469 the Crown of Castile was united with the Crown of Aragon through the marriage of Isabella, heiress of Castile, to Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Aragon. In 1474 Isabella ascended to the throne and was crowned queen and by 1479 the nation we now know as "Spain" first appeared as the "Union of the Crowns." It was this union that would finally succeed in expelling the Muslims from Granada in 1492. In 1512, the union annexed the small Kingdom of Navarre and the boundaries for modern Spain were established. Now that Isabella and Ferdinand had succeeded 2

in establishing political stability to their kingdom, they could direct their considerable resources to a policy of overseas expansion.

Iberian Society: The People & Economy The People:

Iberian society was made up of three different social classes: the nobility, the commoners, and the clergy.

The Nobility:
At the higher stratum of Iberian society a few great "grandee" families bore the titles of duke, marquis, or count. These elite families were the magnates who controlled the majority of the peninsula's land in the form of large estates. The families of the lesser nobility varied greatly in the extent of their wealth and were distinguished by the title of don and a family coat of arms. The lesser nobility was made up of the younger sons of the ancient families or of the recently ennobled bourgeoisie. They usually had rural estates and were involved in commercial affairs and, like the Church; they were exempt from all taxes by the Crown. In Castile the concept of a gentleman, a hidalgo, was essentially aristocratic. A hidalgo was a man who lived for the reconquest of Christian Iberia. He could do the impossible through sheer physical courage and a constant effort of will. He conducted himself in accordance to a strict code of honour and respected men who had won riches by force of arms rather than manual labour. Eventually this concept of the hidalgo would spread across all segments of society as the ideal of masculinity. This ideal was one that would eventually have far-reaching consequences in the New World.

Spanish Nobility in the 16th century

The Clergy:
The clergy were divided into the secular hierarchy and the regular orders. The secular hierarchy represented the parish priest up to the cathedral chapter. The seculars were very loosely organised with members accepting the assignments that suited them. They often had to rely on their own economic activity to support themselves, and operated under the loosest supervision. By contrast, members of the regular orders were better educated, recruited from wealthier and nobler families and held considerable disdain for the seculars. They were strictly organised, better endowed, and each order was fairly autonomous from the others. Often this led to conflict and competition between the orders, creating well-known rivalries like the one between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The Church itself was immensely powerful and shared with the nobility the privilege of exemption from the taxes levied by the Crown. Bishops, abbots and cathedral chapters all owned large demesnes that financed the building of fortresses and the maintenance of private armies. The church was militant in nature and involved itself directly in the struggles that surrounded the throne. This militant nature evolved over the 700 years of the Reconquista when the Church played a major role in the settlement of the lands reclaimed from the Muslims.

The Poblet Monastery: built in the 13th century, sponsored by the Catalan royal family who ruled Aragon.

The Commoners:
Commoners made up 90 per cent of the Iberian population. At the lowest level were the small farmers or herdsmen who were unskilled and paid various rents and duties to their lords; nobles, clergy or the Crown. In the coastal kingdoms, like Portugal or Aragon, where there were long seafaring traditions, Captains were a part of the middle level of commoners. Skilled agricultural workers, artisans, shopkeepers, and petty traders also belonged to the middle level of commoners. Above this group were the professionals and the merchants, "persons of independent means." The professionals were recruited from the lesser nobility or were members of the wealthy bourgeois families. They were trained for the Church, the law, or medicine. Most had university degrees or held bureaucratic office. They shared the attitudes and the lifestyles of nobility and could generally gain noble status if they did not already have it. Merchants, unlike the petty traders of the lower commoners, were usually involved in the long distance wholesale trade. They were literate and propertied and aspired to merging into the nobility.

PORTUGAL
The Age of Exploration marked the apogee of Portuguese imperial power and wealth. At the beginning of the fifteenth century Portugal had a population of one and a quarter million and an economy dependent on maritime trade with Northern Europe. Although Portugal lacked the wealth and population of its contemporaries, it would lead the European community in the exploration of sea routes to the African continent, the Atlantic Islands, and to Asia and South America over the course of the sixteenth century. Several factors contributed to Portugal becoming the pre-eminent European pioneer in maritime exploration. The first was its geographical position along the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula, which allowed for the natural development of a seafaring tradition. The second was the evolution of a complex maritime economy in which the port cities of Lisbon and Oporto became the commercial centres of the country. The merchant community used these port cities as their base of operations from which they financed the majority of the various exploration and trading ventures. The third critical factor that made Portugal a forerunner in exploration was its monarchy. Portugal benefited from a relatively stable monarchy whose kings encouraged maritime trade and shipping ventures. The Crown gave every possible incentive by implementing tax privileges and insurance funds to protect the investments of ship owners and builders. Often, members of the aristocracy were also investors, such as Prince Henry the Navigator. The aristocracy used their political position to facilitate the Crown's granting of royal sanctions that regulated the voyages of exploration made by the merchant community. Portugal was fortunate to have kings who recognised the kingdom's dependency on overseas trade and assisted in its expansion in every possible way. The stability of the monarchy was essential to the establishment of sustainable economic growth, thus the stability of the Portuguese monarchy gave the kingdom a seventy-year head start over the Spanish, who were distracted by a civil war and the Reconquista of Granada. It was not until Columbus' voyage in 1492 that the Spanish were finally in a position to challenge Portugal's predominance in exploration.

PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR

Prince Henry the Navigator was the fifth child and fourth son of King Joo I (John I) and Queen Philippa. Henry was somewhat of a paradox; a dreamer, a scholar, and a monk who nevertheless possessed the instincts of a businessman. Essentially, Prince Henry was a religious man, committed to breaking the hold of heathens and securing the triumph of Christianity in Africa. The crusading legacy of Portugal exerted tremendous influence during Prince Henry's time. The expulsion of Islamic North Africans from the Algarve was still a part of the living memory of most Portuguese and the four great military orders, St. John, Santiago, Aviz, and Christ, still occupied their castles throughout the Portuguese realm. The importance of these military orders cannot be understated, for Prince Henry's own connections to the Order of Christ would play a significant role during the early years of Portuguese expansion. Another influence on Prince Henry's behaviour was the search for knightly honour. Like many European courts of the time, chivalric traditions were very important. It was this moral and ethical code that governed practically all conduct and in which all achievement must be found.

Ceuta
The search for knightly honour and Portugal's crusading legacy would combine to launch the Portuguese era of expansion. In 1411, King Joo I concluded an uneasy peace with Castile that soon took the form of a non-aggression treaty which was specified to last for one hundred and one years, effectively making it impossible for Prince Henry and his brothers to win knightly honour in battle. Prince Henry and his brothers began to think of an alternate plan that would enable them to win their spurs in a time of peace with the Castilians and the Spaniards. The city of Ceuta, which lay nearly opposite Gibraltar, presented a unique opportunity. The North African port served as the launching point for pirates operating in the straits, and was the port where many Christian prisoners began their tenure as slaves. Prince Henry organised an invasion force and when Portuguese ships, under the command of King Joo I, entered Ceuta in 1415, the city was unprepared and fell to the Portuguese with relative ease.

The capture of Ceuta by Portuguese troops quenched Prince Henry's passion for warfare and was the launching point for Prince Henry's intellectual curiosity about exploration. He had witnessed the African coast firsthand, and the more he heard from prisoners, the more he was intrigued by this vast land. His passion for warfare quenched by the attack on Ceuta, Prince Henry began to turn his attention to the question of what lay beyond the vast sea of sand. Critically, the capture of Ceuta provided the Portuguese with maps that were more accurate than those they already possessed. These maps were made by Jews from Majorca who were allowed much greater freedom of movement in Muslim North Africa than Christians. Understandably, this familiarity with the region enabled them to produce precise maps at a time when most Christian maps were more inclined to be the product of half-truths and imagination.

PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR: THE LURE OF TRADE

As we have seen, there were a number of factors that influenced Prince Henry's voyages of exploration. But along with these emerged another, more pragmatic reason to explore. Although the Portuguese had long viewed the Atlantic as their major trading area and they had few business interests in the Mediterranean, Prince Henry saw Africa as a rich market teeming with natural resources and raw materials. Portugal exported salt, wine, fresh and dried fruit, oil, honey, dried shellfish, cork, hops, and other raw materials to northern Europe in exchange for grain and flour, dried and salted fish, dairy products, metals, wood and other forest products for shipbuilding, textiles and other manufactured goods. As we have seen, there were a number of reasons Prince Henry had when he began his voyages of exploration. Azurara, one of Prince Henry's contemporaries and chroniclers, summarised them as: 1. The desire to know the country beyond Cape Bojador. 2. To establish trade relations advantageous to Portugal. 3. To determine the strength of his enemies in the region. 4. To seek allies to help wage battles against the enemies of Christianity. 5. To spread Christianity. When Portugal attempted to re-enter the North African trade, they discovered that they had to rely on a great number of intermediaries to do business, denying them the indispensable source of travel to gather information about African geography. The capture of Ceuta in 1415 meant, however, that Portuguese settlers were exposed to a larger number of stories about the interior of Africa. Denied the opportunity to explore the interior of Africa by land, Henry began to set his mind to an alternate approach; instead of exploring Africa directly, he would attempt encirclement and explore Africa by sea. The two captains Prince Henry chose for his first expedition to explore Cape Bojador were not experienced sailors. Perhaps the selection was deliberate, for it seemed unlikely that any experienced sailor who had come into contact with the myths and legends surrounding sea travel would willingly sail into the unknown. Even more importantly, Portuguese mariners were not used to sailing out on the open sea; their nautical experience was limited to coasting in sight of land.

Not only did Prince Henry not accompany those first ships on their exploration of Cape Bojador, he did not go on any of the successive voyages, and this has led to some spirited debate among historians about how Prince Henry's role in the exploration of Africa should be interpreted. Clearly, there are many issues that must be dealt with before an adequate explanation can be found of why Prince Henry did not join the explorations. Perhaps it was the risk of being captured by North African pirates that prevented Prince Henry from taking a more active role, even though Portuguese ships were armed and no ship of Prince Henry's fell victim to pirates. Others, choosing to emphasise the positive aspect of Henry's preference to remain in Portugal conclude that the Prince's self-sacrifice was extraordinary. It was Henry's task to plan the expeditions and to assess and analyse the reports brought home. According to this perspective, it was only by remaining objective that Henry would be able to accurately sift through information gathered by the explorers, to separate truth from fiction, and to plan subsequent voyages. Perhaps the most plausible explanation regarding Henry's decision to remain at Sagres is that 15th century custom deemed activities, like living with a number of sailors in close quarters for months on end, to be beneath a prince. Granted, while others of noble descent did take part in the voyages and given the fact that Prince Henry camped with his troops during military campaigns, squeamishness about close contact with sailors seems difficult to accept. As word spread throughout Europe of the Portuguese expeditions, sailors, astronomers, cartographers, and geographers began to arrive at Sagres to offer their services to Prince Henry. There were Christians, Jews, and Arabs (Prince Henry 5

had discovered the Arabs' superior navigational skills while at Ceuta years before) and what emerged at Sagres was not so much a school of navigation as much as it was a community of scholars, under the direction of Prince Henry, who joined together to conquer the unknown. When Prince Henry's ships returned from their first exploration, their captains reported that they were unable to round Cape Bojador as planned. Shortly after losing sight of Cape St. Vincent, they were caught in a violent gale and lost all sense of direction. They drifted for days when the winds abruptly died. By sheer luck the crew sighted land, and the intrepid explorers made their way toward shore and a sheltering cove and they named this island Porto Santo ("blessed port"). As best as they could determine, Porto Santo was roughly five hundred miles to the southwest of Cape St. Vincent. The "discovery" of Porto Santo was significant because it was then used as a launching point for future voyages. It should be noted, however, that there is some reason to question whether or not Porto Santo was discovered by Prince Henry's ships, for the island's location coincides with one marked on a Genoese map made in approximately 1351. Nevertheless, the Portuguese believed that they had found a previously uncharted land mass and armed with the information that there was land yet to be discovered, another expedition set out before the end of 1419. On this voyage, they encountered the island Madeira (Portuguese word for "wood") in the early months of 1420. Prince Henry displayed remarkable perseverance and sent expeditions into the "Sea of Darkness", as they called unknown water, in a fifteen-year attempt to round Cape Bojador. Even though he exhorted his captains with promises of increased reward and glory, it was not until 1434 that Gil Eanes (sometimes spelt "Eannes") managed to round the Cape. The physical distance travelled was not what was significant about this voyage. Rather, what was important was that Gil Eanes travelled beyond Cape Bojador and returned to Portugal, eliminating in one broad stroke many of the myths and legends about the "Sea of Darkness". A number of explanations have been offered as to why it took Portuguese sailors so long to accomplish this task. The two most significant problems were that those ships which navigated along the shores of the African coast risked running aground and those who attempted to steer into the open water and strayed too far could be blown out to sea. Eanes succeeded because he did not attempt to sail in sight of land. Rather, he charted a wide course into the Atlantic before altering his course and turning back towards Africa. When Eanes encountered land again, Cape Bojador was behind him.

PRINCE HENRY: AN ASSESSMENT

Europe's exploration of the outside world began a new era of political, economic, and social contacts and it can certainly be argued that the voyages undertaken in Prince Henry's name marked the first sustained expansion outside Europe and set the tone for subsequent voyages. Certainly, Portugal was interested in developing markets and resources to stimulate its economy. The reality, however, was that for the first twenty years, the revenue gathered from such voyages was negligible, leading some to speculate that the financing for the voyages must have come from a private source, including Prince Henry's own fortune. After 1443, it is possible to argue that exploration became self-sufficient with the profits from trade and commerce making voyages profitable. For example, merchants could expect a fourfold profit when trading in cloth. It cannot be forgotten that Prince Henry instituted many of the practices that would become standard features of European exploration. By systematically exploring the African coast, Prince Henry inaugurated a policy of exploration that built on the knowledge of previous voyages. Instead of remaining content with the extent of existing knowledge, Prince Henry used the end of one voyage as the beginning for the next. Other aspects of Prince Henry's system were equally as remarkable. The Portuguese practice of recruiting members of the indigenous population who became interpreters helped to lay both the intellectual and financial groundwork for future voyages. By using interpreters in this manner, Prince Henry was able to build an effective and reliable source of information about the areas to be explored by Europeans. Interpreters also significantly contributed to the European voyages of exploration by allowing Europeans to communicate with indigenous populations in a peaceful manner. Such relations were important to establishing friendly trade and gathering information. Perhaps the most important feature of Prince Henry, and thus his most important contribution to the voyages of exploration, was his curiosity. Although he did not accompany any of the ships under his charge during their voyages, he sent captains to sea to find answers to questions. Therefore, it is certain that Henry provided the intellectual stimuli that sustained exploration during its early years.

THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS

Madeira, one of the earliest colonies to incorporate the plantation system for the production of sugar

The Atlantic Islands were the birthplace of the Portuguese colonisation pattern of exploration, settlement, agricultural conversion of lands, the institution of the plantation model (donatary captaincy), and the incorporation of African enslaved labour on a large scale. The first recorded Portuguese expedition into the Atlantic took place in 1341 with its destination being the Canary Islands that were known to the ancient Greeks as the Fortunate Islands. The expedition successfully returned to Lisbon with a cargo of four indigenous people, fish oil, red wood and skins. Despite this 6

success there was no immediate follow up to this expedition. Portuguese ventures at sea then consisted of raiding and trading with towns along the known coastline of Northern Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean. This continued until the era of Prince Henry when the Canary Islands became important as a supply way-station for expeditions sailing the Canary route that was the shortest course to the West African coast. One of Prince Henry's early expeditions into the Atlantic occurred in 1420 with the rediscovery of Madeira. Prince Henry instigated its colonisation because it was uninhabited and could easily be converted to the agricultural production of wheat and sugar. By 1500 Madeira was the leading producer of sugar and had incorporated a plantation system that depended heavily on enslaved African labour. The Azores were discovered in 1427 and colonised with criminals by Prince Henry and his associates. Again the pattern of agricultural production that incorporated the plantation model and slave labour was successful in producing wine, wheat, and sugar. Due to their location, the Azores also became an important way-station for the rapidly expanding African slave trade. This pattern of discovery and settlement was repeated in 1460 with Fernao Gomes' discovery of the Cape Verde Islands, and in 1470 with the discovery of Sa Tom. It is important to note that the Portuguese efforts in Africa and Asia were aimed at building trading posts rather than permanent settlements. In this regard the Atlantic Islands were unique until the discovery and settlement of Brazil in 1500.

The Canary Islands

The Azores

AFRICA
The Search for Gold & Slaves
During this period there had been a shortage of gold that increasingly hindered the growth of European trade. Ceuta had been a part of a centuries-old traffic in the products of the trans-Saharan caravan routes that provided a source of gold rumoured to have originated in a wealthy nation that lay across the Sahara Desert known as Guinea. The possibility of gold in this new land was too tempting for the Portuguese to resist. They pursued the idea of discovering a sea route to Guinea that would allow them to by-pass the caravan route that was controlled by their enemies the Moors. Prince Henry was able to use his royal status to gain the Crown's permission for numerous expeditions that focused on gaining immediate profit by virtue of raiding and trading, usually at the expense of Arab merchantmen. These types of expeditions were the norm until 1420 when the Portuguese sailors discovered and colonised the island of Madeira and the Azores. These two islands were invaluable ports of call for future Portuguese expeditions since the Spanish had previously claimed the Canary Islands. Numerous individuals led these expeditions, some of whom were foreign captains like Alvise da Cadamosto, who was willing to sail under Prince Henry's patronage. The most successful explorers of Prince Henry's captains were usually his own squires and associates like Joo Gonalves Zarco, Tristo Vaz, and Bartolemeau Perestrello. In 1434 Gil Eanes, another one of the prince's squires led the expedition that was the first to sail beyond the Cape of Bojador. This was a monumental accomplishment because it destroyed the fixed belief that the ocean beyond Bojador was not navigable. Eanes was quickly sent out again and found evidence that the coast was inhabited and the possibility for raiding and trading arose. Progress along the coast was interrupted for four years because of the Portuguese failed expedition to Tangier, the death of King Duarte, and the struggle over the regency. With the death of King Joo I, his son Duarte assumed the throne and granted Prince Henry a "royal fifth" from the profits of all voyages and decreed that no expedition could sail beyond Cape Bojador without a license from the Prince. King Duarte died after a short reign of five years, leaving his six year old son Afonso V as his heir. Prince Pedro took control of the state by becoming Afonso's regent. He quickly confirmed Prince Henry's grant and gave him permission to colonise the Azores. Under Prince Pedro's regency the Portuguese completed King Duarte's secret experiment in ship design that resulted in the evolution of a new type of ship known as the caravel. In 1441 the expeditions began again using the new type of ship. Prince Henry's chamberlain, Anto Gonalves, led an expedition to acquire a cargo of seal skins and oil with orders to go further into the unknown. On one occasion Gonalves sought out a village along the Rio do Oro and took several captives back to Portugal. This was the beginning of what would become the African Slave Trade. Another one of Henry's captains, Nuno Tristo, would discover the Bay of Arguim. Here Henry had a fort constructed in 1448 that would become the centre of trade with the African states of the interior. Tristo also found the end to the desert and reported the beginning of a lush green country. This inspired Dias, 7

who raised enough capital to have Prince Henry grant him a license and a caravel. He sailed pass the Senegal River, eventually arriving at the Cape of Verde that was the western limits of the African continent. Not all the expeditions succeeded. Nuno Tristo died after being attacked with poison arrows by the inhabitants of a village he and his men were attempting to raid for slaves, leaving only five survivors to return home. Despite Tristo's death the voyages continued, thanks to the rewards offered by the Regent Pedro and Prince Henry who recognised the potential of the African trade. Merchants like Ferno Gomes shared this vision and actively financed their own expeditions. In Gomes' case he petitioned the Crown for the exclusive rights to handle the trade of West Africa, since the Crown was distracted by the Castilian war of succession that brought Isabella and Ferdinand to the Spanish throne. Gomes' ventures quickly grew into a thriving pepper trade that in turn led to his sailors' discovery of the gold-producing region of the Gold Coast (modern Ghana). When King Joo II (John II) succeeded his father, King Afonso V, to the throne of Portugal, he renewed the Crown's support of overseas exploration that had fallen by the wayside of his father's administration. Within four years King Joo II had personally sponsored, rather than simply granting a license, three expeditions led by Diogo Co and Bartolomeu Dias, that accomplished more in four years than his predecessors had in forty. These voyages reflected the change in policy from simply expanding overseas trade, to finding a specific sea route to India.

In 1482 King Joo II sent out Diogo Co on the first of two voyages. He discovered that the African continent turned south and ran for thousands more kilometres before eventually turning. Co came to the Kingdom of the Congo where he began a trading relationship that would recoup the cost of the voyages. Bartolomeu Dias continued this exploration by rounding the southern extremity of the African continent in 1488, naming it the Cape of Good Hope. In 1484 King Joo II had rejected the proposals of Christopher Columbus, who then sought out the patronage of Queen Isabella of Spain. With Columbus' discovery of the Caribbean and America, Isabella immediately requested that Pope Alexander VI endorse a series of bulls that divided the world into two parts, by a line drawn from north to south one hundred leagues west of the Azores. King Joo II rejected this location of this line and opened negotiations with Spain immediately. The result was the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. Pope Alexander's line was moved to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Shortly after the conclusion of the Treaty of Tordesillas, King Joo II died in 1495 from pneumonia. His cousin, King Manuel the Fortunate, assumed the throne and continued to support the search for a seaway to the Indies. He appointed Vasco da Gama as the leader of the expedition that would discover the route to the Indian Ocean that rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. This new route marked the beginning of a new era of direct contact between Europe and Asia. During his reign King Manuel was the ruler of the greatest empire of his time and benefited from a growing African trade and the golden harvest of the Indies.

THE SEA-ROUTE TO INDIA & VASCO DA GAMA

Upon Prince Henry's death in 1460, the mantle of sponsoring exploration came to rest on a new monarch, King John II. King John II was not satisfied with the revenues he was receiving from trading voyages and he was determined to establish a Christian Empire in West Africa. In 1481 he charged Diogo d'Azambuja with forming the first permanent settlement in Africa. To mark the philosophical change in Portugal's voyages from trade missions to settlement, a series of granite pillars were commissioned for subsequent voyages. On each pillar could be found the royal arms of King John II as well as a Christian cross. When explorers reached a previously uncharted region, they were to place the pillar ashore to claim the land in the name of Christendom and Portugal. By 1487, Portuguese explorers had placed granite pillars as far south as Cape Cross. Under Diogo's command were two different captains, Bartolomeu Dias and Christopher Columbus, who would soon attain notoriety in their own right. Bartolomeu Dias (1457-1500) was to continue the work of previous Portuguese explorers and to conduct advance reconnaissance about the African coast, but to him goes the credit of circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope. Sailing from Tagus in 1487, Dias coasted south and placed a pillar at a headland now known as Dias Point. When the voyage resumed, a favouring wind turned into a gale. For thirteen days, the gale blew from the north and carried the Portuguese ships far beyond the Cape of Good Hope into the South Atlantic where no previous European had been. As the wind finally died down, Dias steered east and north until he found land again at Mossel Bay. Unaware that he had passed beyond the southern tip of Africa, Dias continued his voyage past Algo Bay. It was at this point where the coastline changes from east to north-east that it became clear that the southernmost point of the continent had been passed. This was uncharted territory for European sailors and rather than risk certain mutiny, Dias yielded to the demands of his crew and charted a course back to Europe. As they rounded the tip again, Dias named the location the Cape of Good 8

Hope. The name "Good Hope" was designed as an optimistic reminder that the overall objective was to find a sea-route to Asia. Dias returned home having travelled a remarkable 11,000 kilometres south. If it can be said that Bartolomeu Dias found the gates to the sea-route to India, it would remain for another explorer to force them open. In the interim, successive wars with Castile and Spain (the latter of which was fuelled by competing claims between Portugal and Spain for a division of spoils in the New World of North America) delayed further exploration. Furthermore, a serious shortage of funds jeopardised the future of exploration by the Portuguese. Only the death of King John II in 1495 and the succession of King Manuel I (1495-1521) would renew the Portuguese quest to find a sea-route to India. Early in the summer of 1497, Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) was granted an audience with King Manuel at Montemro-oNovo, where the captain took an oath of fealty to the Portuguese Crown and was presented with a silken banner displaying the Cross of the Order of Christ. Da Gama was not commissioned to conquer new lands, but rather to seek out Christian kingdoms in the East and to secure for Portugal access to the great markets of Asia. Da Gama set sail from Lisbon and then called at the Cape Verde Islands. Because da Gama was familiar with the wind patterns of the Atlantic, he worked his ships on a south by south-east course before making a wide sweep westwards to reach the currents and winds he would need to round the Cape of Good Hope, or so he thought. Unfortunately, da Gama miscalculated and after travelling over 6,000 kilometres in 93 days, all of which occurred out of the sight of land, his ships barely reached the Cape of Good Hope. The sheer distance covered by da Gama was three times the distance travelled by Christopher Columbus during his first voyage to Hispaniola in 1492. There were numerous disappointments on this voyage; da Gama's progress up the south-eastern coast of Africa was tediously slow and encounters with indigenous populations revealed that conversion to Christianity would not be as easy as hoped. Finally however, the Portuguese captain reached the tip of the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese were finally on the edge of the Asian markets they had searched many years to find.

IMPERIAL SPAIN: CASTILE & ARAGON

Modern Spain was originally composed of a number of independent kingdoms and it was not united until 1479 when both Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand ascended to their thrones. Their marriage in 1469 joined together the royal houses of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon. Although Isabella was crowned queen of Castile in 1474 she had to fight a civil war to secure her throne. The entire kingdom finally came under her control in 1479. That same year Ferdinand's father King John II of Aragon died and the couple became the joint sovereigns of Aragon and Castile. Imperial Spain was born from this "Union of the Crowns." This union was regarded as a union of equals, although each kingdom preserved its own social, political and economic realities according to its own unique history. Aragon was an empire in decline while Castile's star was just beginning to rise under its energetic young queen. Isabella was a devout Christian and this religious conviction motivated her fanatic campaign to expel the Moors and Jews from Iberian lands and spread Christianity to the rest of the world. Ferdinand on the other hand, focused on Aragon's Italian possessions and a series of royal marriages with the other royal houses of Europe. Through Isabella and Ferdinand these two kingdoms would share the same foreign policy and become partners instead of rivals.

Isabella & Ferdinand's banner that incorporates symbols of Castile, Leon, Aragon, & Sicily

Isabella & Ferdinand: Consolidating their power

Isabella and Ferdinand decided that the "Union of Crowns" would be one of equals in theory if not in actual fact. Castile was the larger and stronger of the two nations and would dominate the foreign policy of both but Ferdinand was very much a full partner with his queen. Each of the kingdoms' political, social, and economic institutions remained autonomous from one another, opting for a loose confederation between the two. The monarchy was reformed to favour a strong centralised government aided by a single judicial system firmly under the Crown's control. This stabilised the monarchy's authority enough that it could focus on the completion of the reconquista. Ferdinand led the united forces of Aragon and Castile to triumph thanks to his military and diplomatic prowess. He and Isabella walked together in victory through the gates of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Iberian 1492. To Isabella this was a very important demonstration of her very strict Catholic faith and inspired the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. The results included the expulsion of Muslims from the peninsula and the expulsion of Jews from her kingdoms in order to create a homogeneous population of Christians. That same year, 1492, Isabella sponsored an expedition by Christopher Columbus that located America and signalled the beginning of a new era for Imperial Spain.

KNOWLEDGE & POWER

The history of the European voyages of exploration may be conveniently divided into two areas: the drive to the East, which was pioneered by the Portuguese and the westward expansion across the Atlantic to the New World, which was initially led by the Portuguese, but eventually dominated by the Spanish. The two differ in that Europe had known of India and China for centuries, whereas the existence of America was totally unsuspected. When Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, America was still viewed as little more than a barrier between Europe and the true prize of the Indies in the East. The odds were against the European explorers who sailed in frail wooden ships and were guided by crude and primitive instruments into uncharted seas, where shoals were unmarked and shifting currents were a perpetual mystery. These challenges of exploration were great but so were the motivations; a lust for gold and glory, missionary zeal for converting the savages and the desire to gain knowledge. Although Portugal and Spain had both developed seafaring traditions over the previous three centuries, neither one was prepared, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, for the imminent age of discovery, exploration and worldwide commercial development that required knowledge and skills that greatly surpassed the existing resources available. The following sections examine the progress made by the Europeans in addressing these logistical obstacles to their efforts at exploration.

A woodcut map from 1545

GEOGRAPHY & CARTOGRAPHY

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In the early period of European exploration, captains had rudimentary navigation techniques and a fairly detailed set of Mediterranean portolanos (charts) showing the bodies of water, landmasses and ports. These charts were not drawn to a grid system of degrees, but were based on compass findings and estimated distances. From this point of view, cartography was very similar to early astronomy, in that the product was paradoxically the result of both scientific and metaphysical endeavours. Some astronomers were attracted to the study of stars because of their interest in astrology. The same was true of cartographers whose main purpose was not to discover what actually existed, but rather to rationalise the world around preconceived notions of religion and philosophy.

Ptolemaic Style Map 1432 Nevertheless, it is possible to make a few general statements about the practice of cartography. If it is possible to identify one great influence, it would undoubtedly be that of Claudius Ptolemaeus, or Ptolemy, (130 C.E.) and the Arab geographers who followed. In 151 C.E., Ptolemy published a work on map-making called Geographia. The world, according to him, stretched from Iceland and the Canary Islands in the west, to Ceylon in the east, with a mass of unknown lands south of North Africa and beyond India. Moreover, Ptolemy believed that Africa connected with an undiscovered southern landmass. If this were true, it would have been impossible to reach Asia by rounding southern Africa by ship. Nevertheless, for centuries Ptolemy's ideas remained the basis for cartographers and geographers alike, with a few important modifications and contributions from later Arabic scholars. The significant change to Ptolemy's conception of the world came in the 10th century when, among other changes, Massoudy, an Arabic scholar, suggested that a channel existed between southern Africa and the unknown land mass around the southern extremities of the world. In the 12th century, Massoudy's work was continued by Edrisi, an Arab geographer in the service of King Roger of Sicily. Edrisi's main contribution was to record the travels of his contemporaries in both the Christian and Muslim worlds and to include those discoveries in the maps he created. From this intellectual heritage sprang the twin tendencies of medieval European geographers and cartographers to create maps that were generally either fanciful or factual. On the one hand, there was a tendency to construct a symmetrically perfect design of God's creation that also incorporated the metaphysical beliefs of Europe. For example, the Psalter Map of the 13th century depicted a world with Christ at the top and dragons crushed beneath him at the bottom. Furthermore, in the Psalter Map, Jerusalem was the centre of the world and legends and myths were inscribed in places instead of geographical data, thus effectively blending fact and fantasy. On the other hand, there were attempts to accurately represent the information and knowledge gathered by explorers. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the early 14th century Venetian map of Marino Sanuto, which attempted to use Italian ideas about the Atlantic coastline of Africa as the basis for its projections. Sanuto's map also showed a sea route to the south of Africa, but this was a conjectured, rather than proven route. The most important contribution of Prince Henry to the theoretical side of exploration was his willingness to focus attention on the more "realistic" maps and the first-hand accounts of the travellers, rather than the symmetrical and theological aspects demonstrated in the Psalter Map.

TECHNICAL ADVANCES IN SHIPBUILDING AND NAVIGATION

The ships used in the early period of European exploration were called barcas and barinels but their square sails were clumsy and the ships were slow to respond. One reason for this was that in order to fill their sails properly these ships had to travel into the wind at a minimum angle of 67 degrees. Thus, once the ships were caught sailing into the wind, it was difficult, if not impossible, for them to turn around. The Portuguese quickly realised that a new type of ship and new sails were needed. The Portuguese modelled their new ships on this principle and the result was the caravela, which had an axle rudder and earlier models had two to three masts, all using lateen sails. Future versions of the ship would have four masts, with the fourth mast forward (the mast closest to the bow) being square-rigged. Two of the three ships in which Christopher Columbus made his voyage in 1492 were caravels, the Nia and the Pinta. By the end of the 15th century, another sail, the sprit sail, was fixed on the bowsprit to help better control the caravel. Furthermore, improvements in both the durability and strength of ropes, a result of newer materials, meant that handling square sails became much easier for sailors. The number of crew members required to handle the ship decreased as a result. Ship builders also adopted the best sailcloth, either cotton or linen canvas, from merchants in Genoa and Marseilles and this newer fabric had the advantage of being more durable. Beyond the changes to the basic sail structure of Portuguese vessels, builders realised that the stability of the ship's hull needed improvement as well. When sailing in storms or high seas, it is essential that the vessels remain waterproof. The deck planks on caravels were placed edge-to-edge (no gap between planks) and were sealed with oakum (shredded hemp) and covered with a layer of tar or pitch. Hatches (that allowed sailors to go below deck) and companionways (stairways from one deck to another) were minimised to help make the ship watertight. Structurally, the hull was reinforced with the use of skids (larger planks fixed to the side of the ship that function much like a bumper on a car) to cushion collisions with the dock when the ship was loading and unloading in port. Whereas the yard of a square sail pivots on the mast and can turn easily to the required angle with the use of ropes, to swing 11

the foot of a lateen yard behind the mast and rest the sail in another direction, when the ship was already beating to windward, required a great deal of strength and a large crew. If the sail should happen to break loose during the manoeuvre, there was the danger that the ship could be turned on its side.

An early compass A quadrant to measure A traverse board latitude

Changes to the ships themselves were not the only problems addressed by explorers. Navigation techniques on these early voyages were rudimentary to say the very least. The speed of the ship was calculated by having one member of the crew throw a chip of wood over the side of the vessel. By judging how far the ship travelled before the object hit the water helped determine how fast the ship was moving. This technique was later changed by attaching a wooden float to a line, known as the logline, where knots were tied at measured intervals. When the wooden float was tossed overboard, the speed was calculated by counting the number of knots that slipped through the fingers of the sailor holding the logline. This process gave rise to the calculation of a ship's speed in knots. For the most part, a good captain would rely on the ship's log, his lookout and his leadsman to determine the location of the ship. Most ships were equipped with a magnetic compass that was kept on deck in a binnacle that could be illuminated at night by means of a lamp burning olive oil. Although the compass was in wide use, most captains did not know why its needle pointed north. In fact, many captains preferred to keep the existence of a compass on board a ship secret because superstitious crew members would think that the ship was being guided by sinister forces. Nearby was the sand hourglass, which was the only reliable method of keeping time on board the ship, provided that a member of the crew did not heat the hourglass with the lamp, making the sand run faster, in order to shorten his shift. Clearly, the most important navigational tool available to sailors was the Stella Maris. Holding the astrolabe to his eye and sighting along its diameter, the sailor could read the height of the North Star on the scale. If, for example, the star measured forty degrees above the horizon, the sailor would know that he was at latitude forty degrees north approximately. If the star measured thirty degrees above the horizon, the sailor would know that he was at approximately thirty degrees north, and so on. The quadrant, a quarter circle measuring 0 to 90 degrees marked around its curved edge, was a common instrument to assist in determining latitude. Its straight edges had tiny holes or sights on each end. A plumb line hung from the top. The navigator lined up the sights on the Pole Star and the plumb line would hang straight down over the curved area at a particular point. This would indicate the height of the star in degrees latitude. Portuguese explorers encountered some unexpected difficulties with this system as they travelled closer to the equator. They soon discovered that as the North Star dropped closer to the north horizon it became difficult to fix exact latitudes. Rather than navigating by the North Star, sailors then turned, quite literally, to the sun. By observing and measuring the height of the mid-day sun, a pilot could calculate the ship's latitude and with the aid of tables, determine the distance and direction to be sailed to arrive at the intended destination. The problem of determining longitude was not adequately solved during this period. It was only in the 18th century, with the invention of the chronometer, that a solution was found. Until that time, most sailors relied on dead reckoning. This meant that the pilot had to estimate the ship's speed with a logline, which was a line with knots in it and a weighted wooden float attached to the end. The wooden float was thrown from the stern and the number of knots pulled off the reel by the drifting log determined the ship's speed. Time was measured with one-minute glasses. This information combined with the known direction of the compass helped to determine progress along longitudinal lines. Time, distance, and direction were measured each time the ship changed tack due to wind direction. This zigzag plotting was calculated with a traverse board. Dead reckoning also included observations of the surroundings. Cloud formations, and wave patterns and directions, as well as birds and floating debris were all taken into account. Clearly, dead reckoning was a complicated process and not the most reliable method a sailor could use to determine his course.

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