Tag: Portugal

On the Portuguese Empire

We all remember our history of the world’s great empires; names like Persia, Greece, Rome, England, and others bring to mind vast areas of land under the control of one leader or government. Those areas that differed in culture and language and were under the control of a powerful military–that is one definition of empire. What we often forget is that, at one time, the small nation of Portugal was once one of the world’s largest empires.

Today, Portugal is about the size of the US state of Indiana. In the 1400s through the early 1800s, Portugal controlled about 25% of the globe’s population, making up over 5,000,000 square miles of territory spread literally around the world. And the person probably most responsible for the power Portugal wielded was a crown prince of the country, a man we now call Prince Henry the Navigator (although he wasn’t called that at the time). It was Henry, the third son of King John I of Portugal, who first advised his father in the early 1400s to send ships along the northwest coast of Africa, to explore and to find trade goods.

Now, up until that time, Portugal, a Catholic nation, had had their hands full fighting off the Muslims who had occupied much of the Iberian Peninsula and also their neighbor, Castille (Spain). But John and his immediate ancestors had been able to establish a modicum of stability, and it was in this time when Portuguese exploration flourished along the western African Coast.

And Portugal’s ships brought back so, so many wonderful trade goods from Africa. They raided the interior of the continent for precious metals, ivory, and people. All of this brought wealth to the nation. Forts were set up to protect the trade routes. And, the ultimate prize for Portugal, was that they believed Africa was much smaller than it is–and that they could simply sail around the bottom of the continent and hit India, the crown jewel in trade for spices, cloth, and all sorts of goods that people in Europe would literally kill for.

But, as we now know, Africa is much larger than the Portuguese thought. It took them until 1488–some 30 years after Henry died–to reach the point where they rounded the Cape of Good Hope (they named that, by the way) and knew they were in the Indian Ocean. By then, their way was clear. They had the exclusive route along Africa to all of India’s (and Africa’s) wealth. The Catholic pope insured that they and only they could have this route. For a percentage of the take, of course, but yeah. They won the race to get to India first by sea.

That’s why the Spanish, finally kicking out the Muslims (and other non-Christians) and unifying the various kingdoms and principalities in their area, were late to the game. They, too, wanted a taste of the goods from India. But, realizing that the route along the African Coast belonged to Portugal, Spain grew desperate.

That’s why, in 1492, Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella hired this Italian guy named Columbus who had a crazy idea to get to a route for them to India–by sailing west.

On a Circumnavigation

Your history books will tell you that Ferdinand Magellan captained the first expedition that sailed around the world in the early 1500s. If you remember your high school class, you’ll recognize that Magellan actually was killed by the inhabitants of what is now the Philippines, and it fell to one of his officers named Elcano to complete the voyage and, thus, become the person to get credited with the first around the world trip.

That period of history in Europe was filled with firsts, of course. Since Columbus made his trip only thirty years before, voyage after voyage left Portugal and Spain and went to the Americas. Those ships returned to Europe with the treasures of the newly recognized lands–gold, silver, other raw materials–and humans as well. The slave trade is a direct result of the Age of Exploration. In fact, Magellan took a slave with him on his ill-fated voyage, a man who had been given the name Enrique. No one, including Enrique, seemed to know his origin, but he was bought by Magellan as his personal slave for the journey.

Magellan’s trip had issues from the start. He himself was Portuguese, but he sailed for the King of Spain. Magellan’s Spanish crew resented him for this. By the time the first leg of the journey was completed in what is now Argentina, much of the crew mutinied. Magellan swiftly put down the mutiny and regained control by beheading the mutiny leaders and offloading others on the unfriendly coastline. That was followed by the harrowing journey through what is now the Strait or Straits of Magellan at the toe end of South America. The crew then didn’t see land for over 100 days. Scurvy, other sicknesses, and more talk of mutiny ensued. Finally, the voyage reached what was probably Guam, where the grateful crew spent some time enjoying land under their feet (and several local inhabitants were killed as well, sadly).

Finally, the voyage reached the Philippines. Without going into the details, the Europeans and the locals clashed, and the result was Magellan’s death at the hands of the locals. Despite the firepower of the Spanish men’s muskets, Magellan was felled by a poison arrow fired at him during a skirmish with one of the tribes there. That was when the expedition’s leadership fell to Elcano. With only one ship remaining and over 80% of the original crew that left Spain the previous year dead from one cause or another, the survivors of Magellan’s trip limped back to their home port in September of 1522 after a journey of over 50,000 sea miles.

Interestingly, it turned out that one of the members of Magellan’s crew had been able to understand and speak the language of the people in the Philippines. That person was Magellan’s slave, Enrique.

Now, if you think about it, Enrique had to have gotten from the Philippines to Spain one way or another. And that makes him–not Magellan or even Elcano–the first person to circumnavigate the globe.