Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
braved the open Atlantic to the west and southwest, stumbling on the Madeiras (1420),
which Prince Henry planted with vineyards, and the remote Azore Islands (1427).
Meanwhile, the Portuguese slowly moved southward, hugging the African coast,
each voyage building on the knowledge from previous expeditions. They cleared the
biggest psychological hump when Gil Eanes sailed around Cape Bojador (Western Sa-
hara, 1434)—the border of the known world—and into the equatorial seas where it was
thought that sea monsters lurked, no winds blew, and ships would be incinerated in the
hot sun. Eanes survived, returning home with 200 Africans in chains, the first of what
would become a lucrative, abhorrent commodity. Two generations later, Bartolomeu Dias
rounded the southern tip of Africa (1488), discovering the sea route to Asia that Vasco
da Gama (1498) and others would exploit to colonize India, Indonesia, Japan, and China
(Macao in 1557, on the south coast).
In 1500, Pedro Cabral (along with Dias and 1,200 men) took a wi-i-i-ide right turn
on the way down the African coast, hoping to avoid windless seas, and landed on the tip
of Brazil. Brazil proved to be an agricultural goldmine for Portugal, which profited from
sugar plantations worked by African slaves. Two hundred years later, gold and gemstones
were discovered in Brazil, jumpstarting the Portuguese economy again.
In 1520, Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, employed by Spain, sailed west with five
ships and 270 men, broke for R&R in Rio, continued through the Straits of Magellan (tip
of South America), and suffered through mutinies, scurvy, and dinners of sawdust and
ship rats before touching land in Guam. Magellan was killed in battle in the Philippines,
but one remaining ship continued west and arrived back in Europe, having circumnavig-
ated the globe after 30 months at sea.
By 1560, Portugal's global empire had peaked. Tiny-but-filthy-rich Portugal claimed
(though they didn't actually occupy) the entire coastline of Africa, Arabia, India, the Phil-
ippines, and south China—a continuous stretch from Lisbon to Macao—plus Brazil. The
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) with Spain divvied up the colonial world between the two na-
tions, split at 45 degrees west longitude (bisecting South America—and explaining why
Brazil speaks Portuguese and the rest of the continent speaks Spanish) and 135 degrees
east longitude (bisecting the Philippines and Australia).
But all of the wealth was wasted on Portugal's ruling class, who neglected to reinvest
it in the future. Easy money ruined the traditional economy and stunted industry, hurting
the poor. Over the next four centuries, one by one, Portugal's colonies were lost to other
European nations or to local revolutions. Today, only the (largely autonomous) islands of
the Azores and Madeiras remain from the once-global empire.
Belém Tower —Perhaps the purest Manueline building in Portugal (built 1515-1520),
this white tower protected Lisbon's harbor. Today it symbolizes the voyages that made
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