Portugal, a small kingdom situated at the southern tip of Europe, launched the conquest of the worlds, breaking physical and psychological barriers until then unassailable. In the age of closed worlds dominated by fears and myth and the age of the world in movement, Portugal was in the vanguard. The Portuguese knew how to create and adapt the best boats, dominating winds and seas, they were the first to reach Africa, India, Brazil and Japan by sea.
Organized long-term discovery venture, the feat of the Portuguese was more modern, more revolutionary that the much-celebrated feats of Columbus.
Although, few is known about this new venture, but it is getting unfolded, since Archaeology started to develop more and some rare and hidden documents were found, like “Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis”, written by Duarte Pacheco Pereira, a great explorer (Grande Explorador), expert in all nautical science of Portuguese discoveries. Also, there was a policy of enormous confidence (in relation to nautical science and discovered territories), João II was a politician, he knew that one of the secrets of his success was to avoid competition. Sometimes João II distributed false information to distract his opponents.
The ship of discoveries was The Caravela Latina (caravel of the discoveries). This ship could navigate almost against the wind. In Africa along the coast of the Sahara Desert to the green zone, which was the most critical navigation of that time, the winds blow always the same way, relatively easy to go south but it was too complicated to go back because it was against the wind, only Caravela Latina could do this travel. A revolutionary ship to be able to explore the Atlantic, an agile vessel that achieved remarkable speeds against the wind. A very versatile and maneuverable ship could navigate in unprepared waters, they could go further, carry more cargo and could navigate places that other ships could not go at the time.
The Portuguese were very good at making hybrid versions of the already existing technology in Europe, they took very heavy used ships in the northern seas of Europe and joined used Mediterranean sails.
The Portuguese took the first step to the new type of shipbuilding, with the new scheme of sails first of any other. All rises at the command of Infante D. Henrique (Prince Henry) with the support of his Escola de Sagres, at the tip point of Portugal, where he could see his ships departure at first big wind blow! Later, Joao II, began to dominate the south Atlantic, which was an entirely unknown area, before the Portuguese discoveries.
It was with the Caravela Latina that the Portuguese processed the exploration of the west coast of Africa, their presence along the coast was signaled by the setting of Padrões (plural of Padrão), which are still visible today in some parts of the African continent.
The Portuguese gradually descended along the coast, discovering something close to 300 kilometers per year, the idea was to gradually expand knowledge, and eventually show the way to Asia, which was obviously the main objective.
With the Caravela Latina, the cable of storms was doubled, under command of Bartolomeu Dias (Grande Explorador), what no other vessel had achieved before. There were two separate sea lanes, completely separated for thousands of years, that suddenly came together, a Portuguese whole-world feat.
After returning to Lisbon at the end of 1488, the navigators told the king (João II) of the impossibility of going on the journey beyond the Cape of Good Hope (former cable of storms, since João II changed the name), because they did not have ships strongest enough, to go through the dark seas that existed there, the caravel of discovery (Caravela Latina) had completed its mission.
10 years later Vasco da Gama (Grande Explorador) would complete the most extensive sea voyage that had been relaunched in the history of mankind, Portuguese arrived in India on board of another type of ship, the Nau! Vessels that had long-lasting conditions, could withstand the inherent difficulties and had a large cargo.
Nau was the ship of the future, it was constantly improved and was the most used vessel in Europe during the centuries 16th to 18th. The ship increased considerably in size between the end of the 15th and 17th centuries, The Flor do Mar is an example of this increase in size and the longest to live (9 years), and the preferred of Albuquerque, who was also the last to use. The round sails generate more power. A capacity that other ships in the 16th century did not have, goes to India and returns. The Portuguese arrived in India in 1498, the English and the Dutch almost 100 years later.
When the Portuguese arrived in India, it was the first time that a European power arrived in Asia. They started to trade but mainly conquering. The career of India begun here.
The commerce that until then was made by land route, with many intermediaries, began to be dominated by the Portuguese, by Sea. The Portuguese enhanced the Asiatic economy, shifting the trade and commercial networks to a greater scale, resizing Asiatic trade.
Portugal in its hand, started to have the monopoly of spices trade to Europe, and they created Casa da India, a Commercial monopolized post, for managing all aspects of overseas trade, working like a Feitoria. Casa da Índia was not the first name of this monopoly, since first was named Casa de Ceuta, when the Mediterranean profits where handled, then was named Casa da Guiné, for managing Mediterranean and but mainly new African profits, and finally Casa da India, for managing all that but adding the big Asiatic profits, that changed the world of economy.
With all this increasing trade in Lisbon, the Bairro Alto was born as a response to the social and economic transformation in Lisbon in the second half of the 15th century. Commercial development caused the growth in the population, and an associated expansion of construction within the medieval walled city. It was this phenomenon that resulted in the urbanization process of the Bairro Alto district. Nowadays, in this neighborhood, the real culture of Portugal still lives.
When the Portuguese went to the Indic Ocean, tried whenever possible to establish agreements with the local kings, when it was not possible to establish these commercial agreements, the Portuguese had to conquer these territories to the Muslims.
Between Mozambique and east, the Portuguese built more than 50 sea fortresses (they were Feitorias, that outside territory had to look like fortresses, meaning that they were to defend trade and incoming goods for Portuguese). Ormuz on Iran, Goa in India, and Malacca in Malaysia, were key points that the military strategist Afonso de Albuquerque conquered in the beginning of the 16th century.
The Portuguese were maritime warriors, their ideology was to conquer many lands, so they did not bring the women, many of them married local women. Afonso De Albuquerque, as ruler, wanted to build a correct society (he was hated by many that only wanted to plunder and be rich), he also fomented weddings with local women, even if a priest was not present. The Portuguese culture still present in these cities (old City-States) nowadays.
One of the largest ships that the Portuguese will ever build, was the one that made the commercial route between Goa, Malacca, China and Japan. which became known as the Nau do Trato, in fact there was never an Asiatic power capable of attacking and conquering one of these ships, until the end of the 17th century, only 4 ships were lost, all for meteorological reasons.
The arrival of the Portuguese to Japan is a revolutionary event from the point of view of Japanese history. For the Japanese, until this time, besides Japan, the world was only constituted by the great china and faraway India, they did not know of the existence of a continent named Europe.
The conjugation between the fortresses (Feitorias) and the Portuguese ships, made a small number of people, like the Portuguese, able to have strategic dominions in a clear majority, in a vast territory as is Asia.
Along the Portuguese history, 300 Naus shipwrecked, most of them on way to home (Lisbon), some tragically wrecked at the entrance of Lisbon, after a year of travel.
Every time a Nau was sinking, it was like sinking a fortress on water, for it could carry something like 140 cannons. The Portuguese ships were very difficult to conquer, practically invincible, a single Portuguese vessel could handle 30 40 50, sometimes 100 Asian vessels, having artillery on board.
In the 16th century the development of Portuguese artillery followed the evolution of the ships and was considered the best in the world, shooting speeds were 100 times faster than the other vessels, anticipating others for 200 years with this technology.
The domination of the seas during the sixth century is ensured by three different types of vessels: The Nau, which is a cargo ship, although it is well disposed for ranged attack; The galleon, which is a ship with commercial profile but also for naval war (Botafogo - the spitfire - is an example of a Portuguese galleon, the strongest galleon ever made, that being too heavy never gone too far from Portugal); and Caravel Redonda, which was mainly a warship.
The Caravela Redonda is a Portuguese innovation that mixes the two types of sails, Redonda and Latina, and could protect the armadas of India's career, required when the powers of the other European big players began to increase.
We began to have a direct knowledge of new peoples, new ideas, new cultures, new animals, new religions, that we can observe and compare with the old proofs and see where they were wrong, so there is an important part of the Renaissance, for which the Portuguese voyages contributed much.
From the revision of earth, it allowed, in the following century, to Galileo to review the solar system that went from having its center on earth to a heliocentric vision. Without the discoveries, works of Copernic, Kepler and Galileo would not be possible.
Globalization is not a recent phenomenon, it is a phenomenon that began in the 15th century and began with the impulse of the Portuguese. They would be the people who would give knowledge to the world of the world itself. This is the beginning of a new phase of civilization in the history of mankind.
![[c3c]](/images/smilies/c3c.gif "Civ3 Conquests [c3c]")
