Spanish and Portuguese Voyages of Discovery

 

Why There, Why Then? (Background)

• Phoenicians built galleys with oars, made it up to Britain for gold and tin. Stopped in Portugal and Spain.
• Holy Roman Empire est. trade routes from Europe to the rest of the Iberian Peninsula
• Trade between Portugal, Spain, and North Africa continued even after collapse of HRE (N. Africa à salt, gold; Spain à wine, agriculture)
• Norsemen/Vikings raided English and Irish coasts, then took supplies and traded with Spain, Portugal, and the Byzantine Empire. First to settle in Kiev.

 

1. The Mideast trade controlled by Italian city-states of Genoa, Venice, and Florence. Spain and Portugal want to eliminate the middleman and trade directly with the Mideast.
2. The Moors had dominated Spain and Portugal since the 700s. 1300s/1400s they began pushing Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula and were determined to free the area of Islam; want Africa converted to Christianity.
3. Rise of a money economy. Spain and Portugal needed gold to mint into coins. African cities on the Mediterranean supplied the gold, but it was being produced in Guinea, on southern side of the Sahara Desert.
4. Spain and Portugal developed ships that utilized best aspects of Northern European and Mediterranean shipping.

 

Northern Ships = clinker/lapstabe built, square sails to run before the wind, broad beams, shallow draft, modeled after Viking longship.

                Problems: 1. If wind is not from the back, you have to row

                              2. The low draft may allow water to come into the boat & cause       

                                  flooding.

 

      Mediterranean Ships were caravel built, with lateen sails for better sailing into the  

      wind like the Arab Dhow, with a narrow beam and a deep keel. You can sail into the

      wind, but will need to tack, but you will not have as much wind in the sails when it is

      behind you, so a longship is faster.

 

      Caravel: developed by the Portuguese in the early 1400s, and it combined the best of both. Had a combination of squat and lanteen sails, narrow beam, deep keel, and stem posts.

 

Navigation

 

Renaissance sailors knew about longitude and latitude somewhat, but they didn’t know how to figure out the longitude easily. Were able to use an astrolab or quadrant for some.

 

If all else failed, they could use a cross-staff.

All measuring types were far from accurate, but you could usually get within a 100 miles.

 

Dead Reckoning: Finding longitude was hard, as you have to know speed and direction. Usually got within range, by using deduction.

 

Nocturnal: reasonably accurate times can be determined at night.

 

Speed measured by 2 methods: (1) watching flotsam float by fixed points while chanting syllables to determine speed. (2) use a log, length of knotted rope, and minute glasses. The # of knots passing in a minute gave you the speed. So ship’s speed recorded in knots in the logbook

 

Traverse Board: Early calculating device to determine the distance traveled while tacking

 

Prince Henry the Navigator

 

• Youngest son of King Jao I of Portugal and Queen Phillippa (Lancasters of England)
• Educated in England; learned navigation from Geoffrey Chaucer
• Was a monk in a military religious order (Knights Templar à Knights of Christ)
• Begins to finance discovery voyages (does not go himself)
• Discovers the Canary Islands
• Near end of life, tries to take Tangiers from the Moors, but fails, and has to surrender his entire force
• Dies in 1460. Has established the caravel, advanced navigation, and his nephew, King John, took over the expeditions.

 

Christopher Columbus

 

• Become a sailor for the Portuguese navy, and makes many trips to Africa
• He is convinced that going west is the best route to reach India. The king of Portugal says no, so he has to find another sponsor.
• Late 1480, his wife dies, severing his ties to Portugal. He moves to Madrid, Spain, and lobbies Ferdinand and Isabella. Finally convinces Isabella, and he will then be outfitted and shipped off.
• It will take 3 trips to finally convince him that what he has reached is not Asia

 

The Portuguese are the first to establish themselves in the Indian Ocean and to take over

 

1404 – Spain has Columbus’ claims to America; Portugal has the African discoveries

 

Treaty of Tordesillas (Line of Demarcation)

 

The question of who is in charge of what lands is finally decided by the pope:

 

Everything to the West of the Line à Spain

Everything to the East of the Line à Portugal (*One exception: Portugal has laid claim to Brazil, and it is upheld)