Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Portuguese had established their dominance over the Cape Verde
Islands (while conceding the Canaries to Castile) and secured alliances
with many African rulers. By 1485, while Columbus was still promot-
ing his transatlantic route (he had solicited Portuguese support unsuc-
cessfully before going to Castile), Bartolomeu Dias had reached and
rounded the Cape of Good Hope, proving the feasibility of the Portu-
guese project. By 1498, while Columbus and his cohorts were extract-
ing trivial returns from the off-shore islands of what they still thought
was Asia, Vasco da Gama was leading a Portuguese trading fleet to the
shores of India. Longer voyages and bolder trading adventures would
soon follow. When the Portuguese announced the “discovery” of what
would become Brazil in 1500 as an accidental by-product of their Afri-
can voyages, it appeared almost as a mocking gesture directed at their
old Castilian rivals. So wealthy had the Portuguese dynasty become
that they could afford to leave this foothold in Spain's New World unex-
ploited for the next 30 years.
Manuel I (reigned 1469-1521) was appropriately known as “the For-
tunate.” Presiding over Portugal's ever-expanding seaborne empire, he
extended his own wealth and assured that of his successors as the global
reach of his sailors and merchants extended his dynasty's fame. The
gold of Africa, the spices of the Indies, the silks of East Asia flowed into
Lisbon creating an affluent aristocracy and a flowering of culture. Nev-
ertheless, Manuel understood that on the European scale of things Por-
tugal could not stand as a great power alongside Spain. He sought
cooperation rather than confrontation and successively married two
daughters and a granddaughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. While he
periodically yielded to pressure from his in-laws by, for example, fol-
lowing their lead on the expulsion of the Jews, his statecraft secured his
interests overseas and the long-term stability of his kingdom. Several
generations would pass before the extinction of Manuel's line would
reveal how deeply dynastic diplomacy had undermined Portuguese
independence.
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