Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0296/02965.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 38KB | 609 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02965}
$Pretitle{381}
$Title{Portugal
Chapter 2B.   The Expansion of Portugal}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{portuguese
portugal
trade
century
reigned
spain
africa
country
east
gold}
$Date{1976}
$Log{}
Country:     Portugal
Book:        Portugal, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 2B.   The Expansion of Portugal

     In 1415 the Portuguese seized Ceuta in Morocco, the western depot for the
spice trade, and began a campaign that by the end of the century had put them
in control of most of Morocco's western coastline. From strongholds on the
coast the Portuguese manipulated satellite Muslim states in the interior and
provided cover for settlers who had carved out estates in North Africa but
derived most of their income from raiding along the frontier between
Portuguese and Muslim-held territory. Portuguese efforts throughout most of
the fifteenth century were focused on Morocco rather than on exploration by
sea and colonization of unknown territory.

     Overseas expansion was an extension of the Reconquest, and the same
crusading impulses went into exploration abroad that were involved in Moor
killing at home. The Reconquest in Portugal and Spain had been
self-sustaining: it lived off its conquests. There was nothing ambiguous about
obtaining material gains from crusading. Profit from war was seen as a just
reward due those who had fought in a righteous cause; and when the prospects
for profit waned, enthusiasm for the campaign lagged, and a period of relative
calm and accommodation with the enemy ensued during which newly taken land was
assimilated. Men planted on the frontier used banditry to soften up the
territory to be taken next. This was the pattern followed throughout the
Reconquest, and it has led the Spanish historian Jose Ortega y Gasset to
question whether anything that lasted for 700 years could properly be called a
Reconquest.

     Aragon had turned to the Mediterranean when its territorial ambitions in
Spain had been satisfied. Castile appeared to have an overriding geopolitical
claim to the reconquest of Granada, the one remaining Muslim state in the
peninsula, which it toyed with for 120 years before crushing. Portuguese
attention turned to continuing the crusade in Morocco and at sea. Strategic
considerations and concern for making the venture profitable were interlocked.
The conquest of Morocco was viewed as a necessary preliminary move to the
reconquest of Granada, which had repeatedly received Moorish reinforcements
against the Christian powers. Maritime expansion was seen as a weapon in the
arsenal for the wars in Morocco. By sea the Portuguese would cut off the flow
of gold into Morocco and also link up with the fabled Christian kingdom of
Prester John, supposedly on the far side of Africa, to attack the Moors from
the rear.

     Other factors entered into the process that impelled Portugal, a marginal
country in the European context, to become the first European nation to expand
its territory outside the continent. There was a deeply felt religious and
cultural motivation-the Portuguese gloried in their role as "standard-bearers
of the Faith" and readily associated the spread of Christianity by missionary
priests with the extension of Portuguese political, economic, and cultural
influence. The overseas enterprise provided an outlet for the restless energy
of the military aristocracy that had often before disturbed domestic
tranquillity. Pursuit of personal honor-as well as fortune-and adventure was
an important factor. The exploration of Africa touched on the realization of
the ideals of medieval chivalry; for example, Sueno da Costa, alcaide
(governor) of Lagos and a veteran of Agincourt, was knighted for his gallantry
in Guinea.

Henry the Navigator

     Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), to whom much credit for early
Portuguese exploration has gone, was not himself a scientist, nor was he well
traveled, but he possessed intellectual curiosity and surrounded himself with
skillful and imaginative minds at his retreat, the Vila do Infante, on the
promontory of Sagres. As master of the Order of Christ, one of the crusading
orders, he commanded a permanent military force and had access to substantial
resources. His order paid for fitting out expeditions of which the risks
outweighed the expectations of profit, and it bore the cost of their failures.
Henry proded his mariners to explore beyond Cape Bojador on the west coast of
Africa, a psychological as well as physical barrier that was thought to be
the outer boundary of the knowable world. In 1420 Portuguese seamen reached
Madeira and by 1427 the Azores. In 1434 Gil Eanes rounded Cape Bojador and
reported back to Henry that it was not the end of the world. On succeeding
voyages he explored the mouth of the Gambia River and reached the Cape Verde
Islands. At first the only material gains produced by the voyages were exotic
animals for the market of Bruges and slaves for Henry's estates in the
Algarvo. The newly found Atlantic islands were settled by Portuguese after
1440, and Madeira soon developed a thriving economy based on wood and cane
sugar.

     Although Henry's motives were obviously many, he saw exploration
primarily in terms of outflanking the Moors and contributing to the success of
the conquest of Morocco. His attitudes matured over forty years, however, as
his knowledge increased and he began to recognize the separate advantages of
overseas expansion. The expeditions he sponsored were better planned and
organized, and they began to turn a profit in gold and slaves. By midcentury
Portuguese mariners had mapped twenty degrees of latitude south from Cape
Bojador and had perceived the curve of the African continent.

Royal Patronage

     A conflict over priorities continued to brew between the factions: the
old aristocracy, led by the duke of Braganca and demanding expansion in
Morocco, and commercial interests in the towns and among the lower nobility,
favoring expanded trade overseas and looking to Prince Henry's older brother
Dom Pedro for leadership. Pedro was made regent for his young nephew, Afonso
V (reigned 1438-81). A scholar and collector of maps, the regent saw the
Moroccan wars as a wasted effort and emphasized commercial expansion. In the
practical matter of securing profit from exploration Pedro was more effective
than his brother Henry. But Pedro's attempts to pull back from Morocco led to
armed conflict within Portugal in which the regent died in 1449. An
aristocratic reaction took place during the reign of Afonso V, and for a
decade after Pedro's fall no further expeditions set sail, but interests
revived as even the duke of Braganca saw profit in the importation of slaves
from Africa. In fact the renewed wars in Morocco, championed by him, had the
desired effect of rechanneling the Sudan gold trade away from North Africa to
the Guinea coast, where the gold was picked up by Portuguese ships and
conveyed to Europe.

     Official patronage of exploration and trade was renewed under Joao II
(reigned 1481-95), and to him belongs credit for the first comprehensive plan
for overseas expansion and the idea of rounding Africa to open a new trade
route to India. The crown would thereafter take its "royal fifth," or share of
the profit, on all chartered commercial ventures, assume direct management of
trade, and reap most of the benefits.

The Passage to India

     The Portuguese conducted their expeditions in greatest secrecy. Foreign
investment, except by the Genoese merchants living in Portugal, was
discouraged. The advantages that Portugal derived from advanced ship design
and navigational devices and maps, charts, and reports from earlier voyages
were carefully guarded. In 1484 Christopher Columbus' recommendation for a
westward approach to the Indies was rejected; the Portuguese had an accurate
measure of the earth's circumference that had conf