By Leandro Carvalho
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to go to sea in the period of the Great Maritime Navigations , in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this text we will address the reasons for the Portuguese pioneering in the conquest of the oceans.
The first reason that led the Portuguese to undertake the Great Navigations was the progressive Portuguese participation in European trade in the 15th century, due to the rise of a bourgeoisie enriched company that invested in navigations in order to trade with different parts of the world.
Portuguese monarchical centralization took place in the 14th century with the Avis Revolution , Portugal was considered the first unified European kingdom, that is, it was the first National State in the history of Europe . In addition to the fact of Portuguese unification, the Avis Revolution consolidated the strength of the mercantile bourgeoisie which, as we saw above, invested heavily in the Great Navigations.
Students like Diegues (2010), Tengarrinha (2001) and Silva (1989) 1 who analyzed Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries, also stated that the good quality ports that existed in the country greatly influenced the process of Portuguese pioneering. Another reason no less fundamental than the others exposed, which helped in the process of the Portuguese enterprise, was the nautical study held at Sagres School , under the astute Infante D. Henrique, the navigator (1394-1460).
The School of Sagres was consolidated in the residence of D. Henrique and became a reference for scholars such as cosmographers, cartographers, merchants, adventurers among others. Starting the process of conquests across the seas, the Portuguese in 1415 dominated Ceuta, considered the first conquest of Europeans during the Maritime Expansion .
Also read: Spanish Navigations and the Treaty of Tordesillas
The main objective that Portuguese browsers they wanted to achieve was to go around the African continent, that is, to carry out the African journey. In this way, Portugal conquered several concessions in Africa. In the year 1488, Bartolomeu Dias , Portuguese navigator, had managed to reach the Cape of Good Hope, proving to the world that there was a passage to another ocean. Finally, in the year 1498, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reached the Indies; in 1500, another Portuguese navigator, Pedro Álvares Cabral , moved with a large fleet of vessels to trade with the East, eventually reaching the so-called 'New World' - the American continent.
With the development of maritime studies (Escola de Sagres), the Portuguese became great traders, thriving and producing new vessels and forming great navigators. Portugal has become one of the most important commercial warehouses (warehouse for the storage of goods - awaiting a buyer or re-embarkation) during the Great Maritime Navigations.
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1
DIEGUES, Antonio Carlos Sant'Ana. Peoples and Seas:a retrospective of maritime socio-anthropology. São Paulo:CEMAR, Center for Maritime Cultures, University of São Paulo, 1993.
SILVA, Janice Theodoro da. Discoveries and Colonization . 2nd ed. Sao Paulo:Ed. Ática, 1989. Principles Series.
TENGARRINHA, José (org). History of Portugal . 2nd ed. Bauru, SP:EDUSC, 2001.
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