Martha's HIST-04b Mid-Term #2 Question 1

Martha Raup 2/25/2006 Foothill College, Winter 2006

HIST-04b Mid-term #2 Exam Question 1
The AGE of DISCOVERY

One way to examine the Age of Discovery is to look at what propelled an individual, such as Prince Henry of Portugal, to engage in or support such a treacherous business of sailing into the unknown. I’ve chosen Prince Henry for a few reasons, the first of which is that he’s new to me! I’ve heard the tales of Christopher Columbus before. Although my readings this quarter have expanded and embellished what I already knew, Christopher doesn’t have the attraction of interest for me that Prince Henry does. His story, to me, is new, and it has the appeal of novelty and unexpected surprised. Furthermore, I find him to be an agreeable fellow, someone I can identify with and imagine myself into. He does not come burdened with skeletons that others might bring in their twain. Besides – there’s a lot written about him! Finally, he played a key role in the expansion of European explorations, and that alone makes him worthy of note. The chief sources of information for this writing will be the Spielvogel textbook[1], and the “European Voyages of Exploration” web[2], a splendid site indeed from the University of Calgary listed on our Dr. Feig’s HIST04-b web classroom.[3] Other valuable sources include Richard Hooker’s World Civilizations[4], the Mariners’ Museum of Newport News, Virginia’s “Age of Exploration”[5], and various topics from Answers.com.

Who Was Prince Henry?

“Prince Henry the Navigator was the fifth child and fourth son of King João I (John I) and Queen Phillippa. 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.”[6] As an adult, Prince Henry had control over the Military order of Christ, one of 3 military orders in Portugal in the late 14^th Century. His father, Master of the Military Order of Avis, had been declared by the Portuguese Cortes to be King João after the death of his half-brother, King Ferdinand I the Handsome (1345-1383). The Spaniards had taken advantage of the chaos following King Ferdinand’s demise, and King Juan laid siege to Lisbon in 1384. However, the Spaniard’s success was short, and the interim regent, João, was proclaimed King in 1385. “With the support of his kingdom and his English allies, the young king soundly defeated the Castilians at Aljubarrota [1385], thereby securing Portugal’s independence. The peace of 1411 insured the stability of the House of Avis on the Portuguese throne.”[7] The House of Avis ruled successfully for the next 200 years, and it is in this period that their prominence on the seas was solidified.

What IS the Age of Discovery?

“Between 1500 and 1800 European power engulfed the world. In the Americas, Europeans established colonies that spread their laws, religions, and cultures. In the island regions of Southeast Asia, Europeans firmly established their rule. In Africa and other parts of Asia, their trading activities dramatically affected the local peoples.”[8] However, this is not the beginning of the Age of Discovery. In fact, sailors had been “discovering” other places since time immemorial. What made the 15^th and 16^th centuries unique was the extent of the new lands discovered. The number of people involved, and the impact on the ordinary people of the results of this expansion of trade and colonization, are also significant factors. The sheer ability to sail far from land into unknown seas was what was phenomenally increased in this era, and people like Prince Henry illustrate how and why.

Why Now?

The eight Crusades to the Middle East from 1065-1270 had opened the door to cross-country trade and exploration. This had not been their PURPOSE, granted, but it most certainly was one of the results. And this trade had built up an interest in the products that that trading brought. “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, etc.) 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.”[9] So – this maritime trade in the Mediterranean, as well as the overland routes, had become an important part of the economic structure. “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. Theses 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 long-range planning.”[10]

Who Was Involved?

Spain and Portugal were not the only countries sending out exploration expeditions, but they were the first, and the most persistent. However, many other countries were involved, such as the Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish, and Arabian explorers. “Rivalries between these powers sustained and advanced exploration as each sought to outstrip the other in terms of raw goods and riches provided by their overseas empires.”[11]

What Were Their Motives?

The Nation

The Iberian Peninsula, made up of Portugal and Spain, is almost totally surrounded by water. “In Henry’s time, Portugal developed into a major sea power mainly because it had to. The country lies along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, literally at the farthest southwestern end of Europe. Overland contact with neighboring countries could only be achieved by travel through the hostile kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, with the Pyrenees Mountains as an added barrier at the border with France.”[12] Furthermore, we learn that “The Iberian Peninsula is dominated by mountains and lacks arable land except in a few plateau areas and in some coastal regions. Hence the Iberian kingdoms could not produce enough cereal crops. They became dependent on imported grain and manufactured goods from the Genoese and north Europeans in exchange for specialty goods like wool, wine, fruit, cork, olive oil, salt, and fish.”[13]

The University of Calgary Tutorial cites 3 main reasons why Portugal became the “pre-eminent European pioneer in maritime exploration.” For one thing, Portugal sat on the western-most edge of the continent, and had access to the Atlantic in a most convenient fashion. Secondly, the merchant trade with the rest of the continent was already well established and evolved. The port cities of Oporto and Lisbon were commercial centers. Finally, the political climate was conducive to commercialism: “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 recognized the kingdom’s dependency on overseas trade and assisted in its expansion in every possible way. The stability of the monarch 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.”[14]

So – the Portuguese were active in, and indeed dependent upon, commercial trading, and they had the advantage over the other European countries, including their near-neighbor Spain, which enjoyed some of the same geographical advantages. But what is it that motivated the people?

The Explorers

Here’s where Henry comes in. As a single man dedicated to the religious life, Henry might not seem the most likely candidate for a career, much less a claim-to-fame, as a Navigator. What on earth was he up to? As it turns out, Henry himself never ever sailed a ship, nor voyaged to any of the lands he is credited with exploring or discovering! However, far from an arm-chair explorer, Henry was actively involved in the Age of Exploration. He is most noted for the navigational school he set up on the edge of Portugal in the province (once its own kingdom) of Algarve. “The fortress of Sagres was once one of the most important places. Built in the 15^th century, it was at least as important during the Age of Discovery as the US Cape Canaveral was during the early years of space exploration.”[15]

The website for Sagres gives us the following history about Henry: “When he arrived to settle in the Algarve as Governor in 1419 he was a young man of 25, austere and devoutly religious. A veteran of the invasion of Ceuta, he retained an abiding zeal to banish Muslims from North Africa and the Holy Land once and for all. While in Ceuta he had learned from traders about gold routes across the Sahara which were thought to originate in Guinea on the African west coast. Crusading reverence coupled with a thirst for gold revenue were soon to be augmented by an obsession to find Prester John, the legendary priest-king who ruled supreme amid fabulous wealth somewhere in Africa or the Orient. Religion and economics – God and gold – were the catalysts. Sagres was the crucible.”[16]

Henry was fairly typical of many of the explorers who got caught up with this “Age of Discovery” – except that he was a Prince! However, all the explorers seem to have this same mix of religious, economic, political, and personal goals. They wanted to see what the new worlds were all about; they wanted to conquer new territories; they wanted to discover wealth and fame and fortune; and they wanted to make their King and their God happy. Thus, the interests of Nation, King, and Explorer were intermixed in this turbulent era of the late Middle Ages.

The Kings

Once the financial benefits of overseas expansion had been proven by the independent expeditions, the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies began to take a more active interest in exploration and financed their own expeditions. These Crown-sponsored voyages had a different goal than just making a quick profit. Instead their intent was to expand their kingdoms’ influence by establishing a presence in new territories. Thus, Portugal’s King Manuel sponsored Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea-route to India. Portugal then set out to exploit the wealth of India’s spice trade by creating a trade monopoly in Asia. The Spanish went a step beyond economic domination to complete political control over the territories in the New World that its subjects discovered and conquered. Both strategies were successful and provided Portugal and Spain with the financial resources that subsidized their various ambitions for empires.[17]

What Else was Happening in the World?

The Crusades were over, a colossal failure; the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) was raging between England and France; the Muslim people (and their access to the Middle East) had been removed from Europe in 1492; and in 1453 the European world’s trade routes to the Middle East were closed (following the Seljuk Turk’s overthrow of Constantinople). New trade routes were needed to get the spices and luxury goods the European markets had come to depend upon. The Hanseatic League (an alliance between chartered companies and their sponsoring countries in the north, especially German and Scandinavian) dominated the Northern trade routes. The Spaniards were still busy interfering in the Italian city-states and the Hundred Years War. This left Portugal with a natural arena as well as an economic incentive to explore for new trade routes. Prince Henry couldn’t have asked for a better time to be alive or a better situation to be in.

The Economy

Feudalism gave way to mercantilism, and the Commercial Revolution took advantage of these changes. During the economic system known to us now as feudalism, serfs owed allegiance to the lords for whom they worked the lands, or to whom they gave partial crop payments. In the latter part of the Middle Ages, this system broke down. A new middle class emerged, comprised of traders and merchants who were not tied to the landed gentry or the impoverished serfs. Many of the peasants now flocked to the emerging cities, where they mixed with the merchants, and became a new work force available for hire.

The Age of Exploration both resulted from and helped create this Commercial Revolution during the time period 1520-1650. “Under the new national monarchies, most notably those of Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and England, markets grew wider and more secure. Commercial expansion was supported by technical improvements to seafaring, and from about 1450 explorations were made, first to Africa, then to the Asia and the New World. By the mid-16^th cent. the Asia carrying trade had been wrested from the Arabs, and Eastern goods poured into Europe. From the New World came gold and silver, which in less than a century more than doubled European prices and greatly stimulated economic activity.”[18]

This new age of exploration also depended on new economic units. “The basic unit of this overseas trade was the ‘company’. The ‘company’ was a mercantile institution was primarily a partnership between an investor, who would stay at home and the other partner known as the ‘factor’ who would travel to do the buying and selling of usually a single lot of merchandise. If a venture were successful the investors would probably reinvest and continue their partnership. Often the partners were related by familial ties or regional loyalty, and involved members of all the social classes.”[19] Eventually this new economic system became explained by the theory of mercantilism. As economic system, mercantilism was “based on the premise that national wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and collecting precious metals in return…The period 1500-1800 was one of religious and commercial wars, and large revenues were needed to maintain armies and pay the growing costs of civil government. Mercantilist nations were impressed by the fact that the precious metals, especially gold, were in universal demand as the ready means of obtaining other commodities; hence they tended to identify money with wealth. As the best means of acquiring bullion, foreign trade was favored above domestic trade, and manufacturing or processing, which provided the goods for foreign trade, was favored at the expense of the extractive industries (e.g., agriculture). State action, an essential feature of the mercantile system, was used to accomplish its purposes. Under a mercantilist policy, a nation sought to sell more than it bought so as to accumulate bullion. Besides bullion, raw materials for domestic manufacturers were also sought, and duties were levied on the importation of such goods in order to provide revenue for the government. The state exercised much control over economic life, chiefly through corporations, and trading companies. Production was carefully regulated with the object of securing goods of high quality and low cost, thus enabling the nation to hold its place in foreign markets. Treaties were made to obtain exclusive trading privileges, and the commerce of colonies was exploited for the benefit of the mother country.”[20] Isn’t it marvelous how the explorations abroad so quickly met the needs of the time! Over time, the explorers, the kings, and the states that they represented all found a way to profit and prosper. And we today are still reaping the results!

The Technology

Several key technological developments helped facilitate this new Age of Exploration. The magnetic compass, the clock, the astrolabe – all were instrumental in making the Age of Discovery possible. Another key improvement of the Portuguese was in the ships – they soon realized that the square sails, which required the ships to sail into the wind at a minimum angle of 67 degrees, were impossible to turn around in the strong winds of the Atlantic. “The Portuguese quickly realized that a new type of ship and new sails were needed. The Portuguese modeled their new ships on this principle and the result was the caravela, which had an axled 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.”[21] The University of Calgary tutorial “The European Voyages of Exploration” has an excellent interactive explanation of the challenges the sailors found in crossing the Atlantic Ocean. “In order to navigate, sailors had to learn to harness the wind systems of the Atlantic, which produce a clockwise wind carousel north of the equator and a counterclockwise wind carousel south of the equator…Europeans discovered a very different wind system dominating the Indian Ocean. Monsoon winds, formed as a result of air warming or cooling over the Asian continent, create a seasonal cycle whereby summer winds propel sailors to India and winter winds propel sailors to Africa.”[22]

With the 75-years head start the Portuguese had in the sea-faring business, these innovations brought them increased access to the new lands they were exploring, and to the trade that they brought.

One of the things that made Henry stand apart from others was his insistence on accurate maps. “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 travelers…”[23] Henry’s approach to exploration was actually quite methodical. Each voyage was analyzed upon return, and the new information gathered was immediately put to use in better preparing the next voyage. The Portuguese favored sticking close to the eastern Atlantic coast, and they systematically explored down the coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and then up the coast to India, to China, and eventually all the way to Japan. The trips Henry sponsored only made it as far as Cape Palmas before he died in 1460.[24] Thus, “thanks to Prince Henry's patronage, Portuguese ships sailed to the Madeira Islands (1420), rounded Cape Bojador (Eannes, 1434), sailed to Cape Blanc (1441), sailed around Cap Vert (1455), and went as far as the Gambia River (Cadamosto, 1456) and Cape Palmas (Gomes, 1459-1460).”[25] Portuguese sailor Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to round South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope (in 1487-88). Vasco de Gama, 10 years later, “rounded the cape and stopped at several ports controlled by Muslim merchants along the coast of East Africa. Da Gama’s fleet then crossed the Arabian Sea and reached the port of Calicut on the southwestern coast of India on May 18, 1498.”[26]

What was unique about Prince Henry and the Portuguese explorers? Mostly it was their resourcefulness and use of technology and accumulated knowledge to scientifically pursue their explorations. On one of the early trips, Henry’s men came across a fellow with a more accurate map. This was immediately put to use. Another time, his men found a native inhabitant who could speak with his men, be understood by them, and could explain the world they had entered. From then on, Henry pursued a policy of finding local guides for all his voyages. Prince Henry clearly put his enthusiasm and knowledge to work in a way that opened up the world for others. “Why were the Portuguese so successful? Basically, their success was a matter of guns and seamanship. By the end of the sixteenth century, Portuguese fleets were heavily armed and able not only to intimidate but also to inflict severe defeats if necessary on local naval and land forces. The Portuguese did not possess a monopoly on the use of firearms and explosives, but their effective use of naval technology, heavy guns, and tactics gave them military superiority over lightly armed rivals that they were able to exploit until the arrival of other European forces – the English, Dutch, and French – in the seventeenth century.”[27]

What Was the Effect of All This?

“The age of expansion was a crucial factor in the European transition from the agrarian economy of the Middle Ages to a commercial and industrial capitalistic system. Expansion also led Europeans into new and lasting contacts with non-European peoples that inaugurated a new age of world history in the sixteenth century.”[28] Our text author goes on to say, “In less than three hundred years, the European Age of Exploration changed the shape of the world. In some areas, such as the Americas and the Spice Islands, it led to the destruction of indigenous civilizations and the establishment of European colonies. In others, as in Africa, India, and mainland Southeast Asia, it left native regimes intact but had a strong impact on local societies and regional trade patterns. At the time, many European observers viewed the process in a favorable light. It not only expanded wealth through world trade and exchanged crops and discoveries between the Old World and the New, they believed, but it also introduced ‘heathen peoples’ to the message of Jesus Christ. No doubt the conquest of the Americas and expansion into the rest of the world brought out the worst and some of the best of European civilization. The greedy plundering of resources and the brutal repression and enslavement were hardly balanced by attempts to create new institutions, convert the natives to Christianity, and foster the rights of the indigenous peoples. In any case, Europeans had begun to change the face of the world and would continue on the new path they had started.”[29]

Conclusion

Since I first began researching this period of time, the website I have relied on the most has changed! This is one of the reasons I, as a knowledge-hound, love the Web so much. Like Henry the Navigator, good webmasters are able to update their knowledge periodically, and the results can be put to immediate use. Amongst the improvements noted on 2/25/06 is this wonderful summary statement: “…there were a number of reasons that Prince Henry began his voyages of exploration. Azurara, one of Prince Henry's contemporaries and chroniclers, summarized 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.[30]

This has been a rather long essay, with a lot of quotes in it. Furthermore, it has left a lot out! For instance, I have dealt very little with the discoveries in the Americas, or the colonial policies and practices, or the slave trade. All of these are essential parts of what took place. Nevertheless, I have chosen to focus on what was new to me and what interested me the most. Hopefully, I’ve also answered the exam question adequately, and further my knowledge in the process! What I found most refreshing was to find entire sites, such as the one from Calgary, that broke the topic down into bite-size pieces, and that offered interesting insights into a process that we all know about, but think about very little! As an American, I am ever cognizant that, for good or bad, what went on back then, and over there, is what makes life here worthwhile. So, I take the “sugar and spice” the explorers found, and make the most of it…

HIST-04b Mid-term #2 Exam Question 1 The AGE of DISCOVERY

HIST-04b Mid-term #2 Exam Question 1
The AGE of DISCOVERY