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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XXIII. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 8
TO THE INDIES EASTWARD: PRINCE HENRY AND DA GAMA
PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, 1394-1460 A.D.
In the history of the fifteenth century few names rank higher than that of Prince Henry, commonly called the Navigator, because of his services to the cause of exploration. The son of a Portuguese king, he devoted himself during more than forty years to organizing scientific discovery. Under his direction better maps were made, the astrolabe was improved, the compass was placed on vessels, and seamen were instructed in all the nautical learning of the time. The problem which Prince Henry studied and which Portuguese sailors finally solved was the possibility of a maritime route around Africa to the Indies.
EXPLORATION OF THE AFRICAN COAST
The expeditions sent out by Prince Henry began by rediscovering the Madeira and Azores Islands, first visited by Europeans in the fourteenth century. Then the Portuguese turned southward along the unchartered African coast. In 1445 A.D. they got as far as Cape Verde, or "Green Cape," so called because of its luxuriant vegetation. The discovery was important, for it disposed of the idea that the Sahara desert extended indefinitely to the south. Sierra Leone, which the Carthaginian Hanno had probably visited, was reached in 1462 A.D., two years after Prince Henry's death. Soon Portuguese sailors found the great bend of the African coast formed by the gulf of Guinea. In 1471 A.D. they crossed the equator, without the scorching that some had feared. In 1482 A.D. they were at the mouth of the Congo. Six years later Bartholomew Diaz rounded the southern extremity of Africa. The story goes that he named it the Cape of Storms, and that the king of Portugal, recognizing its importance as a stage on the route to the East, rechristened it the Cape of Good Hope.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
