Discoveries Odyssey: Glory of the Empire
During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal eclipsed most other nations in terms of economic, political, and cultural influence and it had an extensive empire throughout the World.
July 25 1415, marked the beginning of the Portuguese Empire, when the Portuguese Armada along with King John I and his sons Prince Duarte (future king), Prince Pedro, Prince Henry the Navigator and Prince Afonso, also with the mythical Portuguese hero Nuno Alvares Pereira departed to Ceuta in North Africa, a rich trade Islamic centre. On August 21, the city was conquered by Portugal, and the long-lived Portuguese Empire was founded. Further steps were taken which expanded the Empire even more.
In 1418 two of the captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven by a storm to an island which they called Porto Santo, or Holy Port, in gratitude for their rescue from the shipwreck. In 1419, João Gonçalves Zarco disembarked on Madeira Island. Between 1427 and 1431 most of the Azorean islands were discovered.
In 1434, Gil Eanes turned the Cape Bojador South of Morocco. The trip marked the beginning of the Portuguese exploration of Africa. Before the turn, very little information was known in Europe about what lay around the cape. At the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th, those who tried to venture there became lost, which gave birth to legends of sea monsters. Some setbacks occurred: in 1436 the Canaries were recognized as Castilian by the Pope, earlier they were recognized as Portuguese. Also, in 1438 in a military expedition to Tanger, the Portuguese were defeated.
However, the Portuguese did not give up their exploratory efforts. In 1445, Álvaro Fernandes turned Cape Verde (the cape) and 3 years later, on a small island known as Arguim off the coast of Mauritania an important castle was built, working as a feitoria (a tradepost) for commerce with inland Africa, some years before the first African gold was brought to Portugal, circumeventing the Arabic caravans that crossed the Sahara. In 1456, the Cape Verde Islands were discovered. In the following years, the caravels explored the Golf of Guinea which lead to the discovery of the islands of Fernão Poo, São Tomé, Príncipe and Annobón. Finally, in 1471, the Portuguese captured Tanger, after years of trying. Eleven years later, the fortress of São Jorge da Mina in the Golf was built. In 1483, Diogo Cão reached the Congo River.
A remarkable achievement was the turning of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 and the richness of India was now nearby, hence the name of the cape. Portugal, three years earlier, did not accept Christopher Columbus' idea of reaching India from the west, because it was seen as unreasonable. In 1489, the King of Bemobi gave his realms to the Portuguese King and became Christian. Between 1491 and 1494, Pêro de Barcelos and João Fernandes Lavrador explored North America. At the same time, Pêro da Covilhã reached Ethiopia. Vasco da Gama sailed for India, and arrived at Calecut on May 20 1498, returning in glory to Portugal the next year. The Monastery of Jerónimos was built, and dedicated to the discovery of the route to India. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral sighted the Brazilian coast; more was explored in the following year. In 1510, Afonso de Alburquerque conquered Goa, in India.
The two million Portuguese people ruled a vast empire with hundreds of millions of inhabitants stretching from Brazil, Africa, to Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, from Goa to Malacca and, from 1514, the Portuguese had reached China and Japan.
The very young king Sebastian signed the Carta Régia (Royal letter) proclaiming the freedom of the Brazilian Amerindians. Eight years later, in 1578, the king died in battle without an heir (the body was not found), leading to a dynastic crisis. The Cardinal Henry became ruler, but died two years after. Portugal was worried about the maintenance of its independence and sought help to find a new king. Because
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