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BACKGROUND to the VOYAGE the Decade of the 1490S Is

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BACKGROUND to the VOYAGE the Decade of the 1490S Is BACKGROUND TO THE VOYAGE Th e decade of the 1490s is arguably one of the most signifi cant in the history of humankind. During those ten short years unalterable steps were taken that forever linked the long disparate regions of the globe, thus initiating the process of economic, social, cultural, and religious interchange that forms the sinews of the modern world. A regular sea- borne interchange between Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia was established which has survived ever since. World history for the fi rst time became a reality. In that process there were two seminal voyages which initiated and helped to cement these profound societal links: that of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1493 and that of Vasco da Gama from 1497 to 1499. Commenting on these voyages, Adam Smith declared in his Wealth of Nations (1776): “Th e discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind.”1 Of the two men and their accomplishments, Columbus’s discovery of the “New World” has received far more scholarly attention over the years, especially in the United States. But to contemporaries, da Gama’s voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to the tropical spice producing shores of the Malabar coast of India was deemed to be far more signifi cant in terms of immediate economic impact and cultural exchange. As a feat of daring, leadership, and seamanship, Columbus’s four week jaunt from the Canaries to the Bahamas also pales in com- parison to 23,000 miles covered by Vasco da Gama, including more than three months navigating in the South Atlantic out of sight of land. Vasco da Gama’s fi rst voyage was the culmination of eight decades of sometimes sporadic, sometimes inspired exploration of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese Crown and its minions. Fueled by a burning desire to reach the source of gold, ivory, slaves, and eventually Asian spices, as well as a crusading quest to combat Islam and spread the Christian faith, this campaign began with the conquest of Ceuta on the North African coast in 1415 by king D. João I, the creator of the Aviz dynasty in Portugal. Sailing lateen caravels, a hybrid vessel 1 Cf. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nation (2 vols., Chi- cago, 1976), II: 141. 2 background to the voyage ideally suited to the challenges of such nautical work, and energized by the patronage of D. João’s third son, Prince Henry ‘Th e Navigator,’ the Portuguese soon discovered the Atlantic islands of Porto Santo, Madeira, the Azores, and the Canaries. By 1446, Henry’s captains had reached Sierra Leone, acquiring gold and slaves in the process. Two years later, the Portuguese built a fort on Arguin island off the Guinea coast to protect their increasingly lucrative interests. By the time of Henry’s death in 1460, Portugal was the preeminent European power with respect to maritime technology, skills, and overseas exploration. Not only was the African coast yielding its secrets, trading products, and wealth, but this quest for gold, slaves, and ivory had gradually become intertwined with the quest for the spices and riches of India and beyond.2 Nevertheless, following Henry’s death, the exploration campaign lan- guished to a degree under king D. Afonso V (r. 1438–1481), who much preferred crusading against the Moors in Morocco to outfi tting fl eets of exploration. He had therefore leased out the trade to private bidders like Fernão Gomes who were obliged to explore 100 leagues of coastline each year. His son, the formidable D. João II (r. 1481–1495), however, fi rmly embraced the earlier zeal of his uncle. He restored direct royal control over the Guinea trade, built the fortress of São Jorge da Mina in 1482, and oversaw crucial navigational advances. By the early 1490s, Portuguese mapmakers had added a single meridian line to traditional Portolani charts, marked with degrees of latitude. To compensate for the loss of the Pole Star and a lower sun closer to the equator, D. João’s Mathematical Council also recommended the calculation of latitude with a sun sighting at midday with either an astrolabe or quadrant in combination with a table of declination. Exploiting these advances, Bartolomeu Dias completed the journey around the southern cape of Africa in a voyage of 1487–1488. To ensure future investment, the astute D. João promptly changed Dias’s initial name of the “Cape of 2 Standard works in English on the early phases of Portuguese expansion include: C.R. Boxer, Th e Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825 (New York, 1969); F.C. Danvers, Th e Portuguese in India (2 vols., London, 1894), R.S. Whiteway, Th e Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497–1550 (London, 1899), Edgar Prestage, Th e Portuguese Pioneers (London, 1933), George D. Winius and B.W. Diffi e, Foundations of Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580 (Minneapolis, 1977), Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Th e Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700 (London, 1993), M.N. Pearson, Th e Portuguese in India (Cambridge, 1987), and A.J.R. Russell-Wood, A World on the Move: Th e Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808 (Baltimore, 1993, 1998). On Prince Henry, cf. R.H. Major, Th e Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, Surnamed the Navigator (London, 1868) and Peter Russell, Prince Henry the ‘Navigator’: A Life, (New Haven, 2001)..
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