History of Portugal (1415–1578)

Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves Reyno de Portugal et dos Algarues (Old Modern Portuguese)
1415–1580
Flag (1485-1495)
Capital	Absolute Monarchy
Monarch
• 1415–1433	João I (first)
• 1578–1580	Henrique I (last)
History
•  Conquest of Ceuta	14 August 1415
• Battle of Alcácer Quibir	4 August 1578
• Death of Henrique I	31 January 1580
Currency	Portuguese dinheiro, Portuguese real
ISO 3166 code	PT
Preceded by Succeeded by Portugal in the Middle Ages Iberian Union

Part of a series on the
History of Portugal
Ancient Prehistoric Iberia Pre-Roman Peoples Roman conquest of Hispania Romanization of Hispania Lusitania Gallaecia Suebic Kingdom Visigothic Kingdom Spania
Medieval Umayyad conquest of Hispania Al-Andalus Gharb Al-Andalus Almoravid dynasty County of Portugal Reconquista Portuguese House of Burgundy 1383–1385 Crisis
Age of Discovery Imperial expansion House of Aviz Portuguese Renaissance Portuguese Empire War of the Portuguese Succession Iberian Union Dutch-Portuguese War
Bragantine Restoration War House of Braganza Great Lisbon earthquake Imperial decline, war, and revolt Transfer of Court Liberal Wars Constitutional Monarchy 1910 Revolution
First Republic First Republic Monarchy of the North Portugal during World War I 1926 coup d'état
Second Republic Ditadura Nacional Portugal during World War II Estado Novo Portuguese Colonial War
Third Republic Carnation Revolution Processo Revolucionário Em Curso Transition to democracy Third Republic
Topic Archives - Economy - Language - LGBT - Judaism - Military - Music
Regions Azorean history Madeiran history
Timeline
Portugal portal
v t e

The history of the

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 Afonso V (1443–1481), surnamed the African, the Gulf of Guinea was explored as far as Cape St Catherine (Cabo Santa Catarina),^{[4] [5]}

After 1492 the arrival of

While the Crown was thus acquiring new possessions, its authority in Portugal was temporarily overshadowed by the growth of

An unwise foreign policy simultaneously injured the royal prestige, for Afonso married his own niece, Joanna, daughter of Henry IV of Castile, and claimed the kingdom of Castile in her name. At the Battle of Toro, in 1476, he fought an indecisive battle that made him realize that his claims to the Castilian throne were not achievable. However, Portugal defeated Castile in the naval war (1475–79) of the same conflict (War of the Castilian Succession), capturing a large Castilian fleet -full of gold- in the Battle of Guinea (1478).

In 1479

During Sebastian's short personal reign, he strengthened ties with the Holy Roman Empire, England and France through diplomatic efforts. He also restructured much of the administrative, judicial and military life in his kingdom. In 1568, Sebastian created scholarships to provide financial assistance to students who wished to study medicine or pharmacy at the University of Coimbra. In 1569, Sebastian ordered Duarte Nunes de Leão to compile all the laws and legal documents of the kingdom in a collection of Leis Extravagantes known as Código Sebastiânico (Sebastian's code).

During the great plague of Lisbon in 1569, Sebastian sent for doctors from Seville to help the Portuguese doctors fight the plague. He created two hospitals in Lisbon to take care of the afflicted. In his concern for the widows and orphans of those killed by the plague, he created several Recolhimentos (shelters), known as the Recolhimento de Santa Marta (shelter of Santa Marta) and the Recolhimento dos Meninos (shelter of the children), and provided wet nurses to take care of the babies.

Sebastian created laws for the military, the Lei das Armas, that would become a military organization model. In 1570 Goa was attacked by the Indian army, but the Portuguese were successful in repulsing the assault. Also in 1570, Sebastian ordered that Brazilian Indians should not be used as slaves and ordered the release of those held in captivity.

The Celeiros Comuns (Communal Granaries) were inaugurated in 1576 on Sebastian's orders. These were lending institutions intended to help to poor farmers when farm production decreased, giving credit, lending seeds and commodities to the needy, and allowing them to pay back with farm products when they recovered from losses.

In 1577 Sebastian's ordinance Da nova ordem do juízo, sobre o abreviar das demandas, e execução dellas decreased the time for handling legal actions, regulated the action of lawyers, scribes and other court officials, and created fines for delays.

Sebastian disappeared (and was presumably killed in action) in the battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578, after the brief reign of King Henry triggering the Portuguese succession crisis.

Dynastic crisis and union with Spain

had finally reached the East by sailing around Africa in 1497–98.

Explorations

This section may contain material not related to the topic of the article. Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page. (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

Main articles:

Portuguese discoveries

Reasons for exploration

Portugal's long shoreline, with its many harbours and rivers flowing westward to the

Hanseatic league

towns.

Having fought to achieve and to retain independence, the nation's leadership had also a desire for fresh conquests. Added to this was a long struggle to expel the Moors that was religiously sanctioned and influenced by foreign crusaders with a desire for martial fame. Making war on Islam seemed to the Portuguese both their natural destiny and their duty as Christians.

One important reason was the need to overcome the expensive eastern trade routes, dominated first by the republics of Venice and Genoa in the Mediterranean, and then controlled by the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, barring European access, and going through North Africa and the historically important combined-land-sea routes via the Red Sea. Both spice and silk were big businesses of the day, and arguably, spices which were used as medicine, drugs and preservatives was something of a necessity—at least to those Europeans of better than modest means.

The

The successive expeditions and experience of the pilots led to a fairly rapid evolution of Portuguese nautical science, creating an elite of

Until the 15th century, the Portuguese were limited to coastal

The ship that truly launched the first phase of the Portuguese discoveries along the African coast was the caravel, a development based on existing fishing boats. They were agile and easier to navigate, with a tonnage of 50 to 160 tons and 1 to 3 masts, with lateen triangular sails allowing luffing. The caravel benefited from a greater capacity to tack. The limited capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but did not hinder its success. Limited crew and cargo space was acceptable, initially, because as exploratory ships, their "cargo" was what was in the explorer's feedback of a new territory, which only took up the space of one person.^[9] Among the famous caravels are Berrio and Caravela Annunciation.

With the start of long oceanic sailing also large ships developed. "Nau" was the Portuguese archaic synonym for any large ship, primarily merchant ships. Due to the piracy that plagued the coasts, they began to be used in the navy and were provided with cannon windows, which led to the classification of "naus" according to the power of its artillery. They were also adapted to the increasing maritime trade: from 200 tons capacity in the 15th century to 500, they become impressive in the 16th century, having usually two decks, stern castles fore and aft, two to four masts with overlapping sails. In India travels in the sixteenth century there were also used carracks, large merchant ships with a high edge and three masts with square sails, that reached 2000 tons.

Celestial navigation

In the thirteenth century

To this the Portuguese used the astronomical tables (Ephemeris), precious tools for oceanic navigation, which have experienced a remarkable diffusion in the fifteenth century. These tables revolutionized navigation, allowing to calculate latitude. The tables of the Almanach Perpetuum, by astronomer Abraham Zacuto, published in Leiria in 1496, were used along with its improved astrolabe, by Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral.

Sailing techniques

Besides coastal exploration, Portuguese also made trips off in the ocean to gather

It is thought that

With his son, cartographer Jorge Reinel and Lopo Homem, they participated in the making of the atlas known as "Lopo Homem-Reinés Atlas" or "Miller Atlas", in 1519. They were considered the best cartographers of their time, with Emperor Charles V wanting them to work for him. In 1517 King Manuel I of Portugal handed Lopo Homem a charter giving him the privilege to certify and amend all compass needles in vessels.

In the third phase of the former Portuguese nautical cartography, characterized by the abandonment of the influence of Ptolemy's representation of the East and more accuracy in the representation of lands and continents, stands out Fernão Vaz Dourado (Goa ~ 1520 – ~ 1580), whose work has extraordinary quality and beauty, giving him a reputation as one of the best cartographers of the time. Many of his charts are large scale.

Henry the Navigator

It was the genius of

The effort to colonize and maintain territories scattered around the entire coast of Africa and its surrounding islands, Brazil, India and Indic territories such as in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Japan, China, Indonesia and Timor was a challenge for a population of only one million. Combined with constant competition from the Spanish this led to a desire for secrecy about every trade route and every colony. As a consequence, many documents that could reach other European countries were in fact fake documents with fake dates and faked facts, to mislead any other nation's possible efforts.

Portuguese discoveries and explorations (1415–1543)

Chronology of the Portuguese discoveries

• 1336 — Possible first expedition to the Canary Islands with additional expeditions in 1340 and 1341, though this is disputed.^[10]
• 1412 —
  Prince Henry, the Navigator
  , orders the first expeditions to the African Coast and Canary Islands.
• 1419 —
  Porto Santo island
  , in the Madeira group.
• 1420 — The same sailors and
  Bartolomeu Perestrelo discovered the island of Madeira
  , which at once began to be colonized.
• 1422 — Cape Nao, the limit of Moorish navigation is passed as the African Coast is mapped.
• 1427 — Diogo de Silves discovered the Azores, which was colonized in 1431 by Gonçalo Velho Cabral.
• 1434 — Gil Eanes sailed round Cape Bojador, thus destroying the legends of the ‘Dark Sea’.
• 1434 — the 32 point compass-card replaces the 12 points used until then.
• 1435 — Gil Eanes and Afonso Gonçalves Baldaia discovered Garnet Bay (Angra dos Ruivos) and the latter reached the Gold River (Rio de Ouro).
• 1441 — Nuno Tristão reached Cape White.
• 1443 — Nuno Tristão penetrated the Arguim Gulf.
  Prince Pedro granted Henry the Navigator the monopoly of navigation, war and trade in the lands south of Cape Bojador
  .
• 1444 — Dinis Dias reached Cape Green (Cabo Verde).
• 1445 — Álvaro Fernandes sailed beyond Cabo Verde and reached Cabo dos Mastros (Cape Red)
• 1446 — Álvaro Fernandes reached the northern Part of Portuguese Guinea
• 1452 — Diogo de Teive discovers the Islands of Flores and Corvo.
• 1458 — Alvise Cadamosto discovers the first Cape Verde Islands.
• 1460 — Death of Prince Henry, the Navigator. His systematic mapping of the Atlantic reached 8° N on the African Coast and 40° W in the Atlantic (Sargasso Sea) in his lifetime.
• 1461 — Diogo Gomes and António Noli discovered more of the Cape Verde Islands.
• 1461 — Diogo Afonso discovered the western islands of the Cape Verde group.
• 1471 —
  Southern Cross. The discovery of the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe
  is also attributed to these same sailors.
• 1479 — Treaty of Alcáçovas establishes Portuguese control of the Azores, Guinea, ElMina, Madeira and Cape Verde Islands and Castilian control of the Canary Islands.
• 1482 — Diogo Cão reached the estuary of the Zaire (Congo) and placed a landmark there. Explored 150 km upriver to the Yellala Falls.
• 1484 — Diogo Cão reached Walvis Bay, south of Namibia.
• 1487 —
  Pero da Covilhã traveled overland from Lisbon in search of the Kingdom of Prester John. (Ethiopia
  )
• 1488 — Bartolomeu Dias, crowning 50 years of effort and methodical expeditions, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean. They had found the "Flat Mountain" of Ptolemy's Geography.
• 1489/92 — South Atlantic Voyages to map the winds
• 1490 — Columbus leaves for Spain after his father-in-law's death.
• 1492 — First exploration of the Indian Ocean.^{[citation needed]}
• 1494 — The Treaty of Tordesillas between Portugal and Spain divided the world into two parts, Spain claiming all non-Christian lands west of a north–south line 370 leagues west of the Azores, Portugal claiming all non-Christian lands east of that line.
• 1495 — Voyage of João Fernandes, the Farmer, and Pedro Barcelos to Greenland. During their voyage they discovered the land to which they gave the name of Labrador (lavrador, farmer)
• 1494 — First boats fitted with cannon doors and topsails.
• 1498 — Vasco da Gama led the first fleet around Africa to India, arriving in Calicut.
• 1498 — Duarte Pacheco Pereira explores the South Atlantic and the South American Coast North of the Amazon River.
• 1500 — Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil on his way to India.
• 1500 — Gaspar Corte-Real made his first voyage to Newfoundland, formerly known as Terras Corte-Real.^{[citation needed]}
• 1500 — Diogo Dias discovered an island they named after St Lawrence after the saint on whose feast day they had first sighted the island later known as Madagascar
• 1502 — Returning from India, Vasco da Gama discovers the Amirante Islands (Seychelles).
• 1502 —
  Fernão de Noronha
  discovered the island which still bears his name.
• 1503 — On his return from the East,
  Estêvão da Gama discovered Ascension Island
  .
• 1505 — Gonçalo Álvares in the fleet of the first viceroy sailed south in the Atlantic to were "water and even wine froze" discovering an island named after him, modern Gough Island
• 1505 — Lourenço de Almeida made the first Portuguese voyage to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and established a settlement there.^[11]
• 1506 — Tristão da Cunha discovered the island that bears his name. Portuguese sailors become the first Europeans to reach Madagascar.
• 1509 — The Bay of Bengal crossed by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira. On the crossing he also reached Malacca.
• 1511 — Duarte Fernandes is the first European to visit the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand), sent by Afonso de Albuquerque after the conquest of Malaca.^[12]
• 1512 —
  Moluccas
  .
• 1512 — Pedro Mascarenhas discovered the island of Diego Garcia, he also encountered the Mauritius, although he may not have been the first to do so; expeditions by Diogo Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque in 1507 may have encountered the islands. In 1528 Diogo Rodrigues named the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues the Mascarene Islands, after Mascarenhas.
• 1512 — João de Lisboa and Estevão Frois reached the La Plata estuary or even perhaps the Gulf of San Matias in 42°S in modern Argentina between 1511 and 1514 (1512) according to the manuscript Newen Zeytung auss Pressilandt in the Fugger archives of the time. Christopher de Haro, the financier of the expedition, bears witness to the trip to La Plata (Rio da Prata) and the news of the "White King" to the interior and west, the Inca emperor – and the axe of silver obtained from the natives and offered to the king Manuel I.
• 1513 — The first trading ship to touch the coasts of China, under Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello later in the same year.
• 1517 —
  Ming Dynasty during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor
  .
• 1525 — Aleixo Garcia explored the Rio de la Plata in service to Spain, as a member of the expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís, and later – from Santa Catarina, Brazil – leading an expedition of some Europeans and 2,000 Guaraní Indians, explored Paraguay and Bolivia. Aleixo Garcia was the first European to cross the Chaco and even managed to penetrate the outer defenses of the Inca Empire on the hills of the Andes (near Sucre), in present-day Bolivia. He was the first European to do so, accomplishing this eight years before Francisco Pizarro.
• 1526 — Discovery of
  Jorge de Meneses
• 1528 —
  Rodrigues^[13]
• 1529 —
  Treaty of Saragossa
  divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal, stipulating that the dividing line should lie 297.5 leagues or 17° east of the Moluccas.
• 1536 — Pedro A. Campos discovers Barbados, and finds it uninhabitable.
• 1542 — The coast of
  João Rodrigues Cabrilho
  .
• 1543 —
  António Mota, Francisco Zeimoto, and possibly Fernão Mendes Pinto
  became the first Europeans to reach Japan.
• 1557 —
  pirates who infested the China Sea
  .

• Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery
• Naval history
• List of Portuguese people
• Lusitania
• Portugal
• Portuguese colonization of the Americas
• Portuguese Empire (1415–2002)
• Portuguese people

References

Citations