Why Portugal Began Exploring the African Coast

At the same time that Chinese fleets under Zheng He were sailing to India, the Arabian Peninsula, and east Africa, and Muslim sailors dominated the coastal trade of virtually every inhabited land washed by the Indian Ocean, Portuguese explorers began to inch their way down Africa's west coast. From 1419 onward, Prince Henry, the third son of King John I, almost annually sent out a ship or two in an attempt to push farther toward the sub-Saharan land the Portuguese called Guinea. After they rounded Cape Bojador, on the western Sahara coast in 1434, the pace of exploration quickened, especially now that the Portuguese were coming to believe that it might be possible to reach Asia by sailing around Africa. By 1460, the Portuguese reached the coast of modern Sierra Leone, and in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias sailed around Africa's southern tip. Finally, on May 20, 1498, Vasco da Gama, seeking "Christians and spices," dropped anchor off Calicut on India's west coast after rounding Africa. Although da Gama lost two of his four ships and many of his crew in these enterprise, Portugal was now in the Indian Ocean to stay.

Da Gama's success was still almost a half century in the future when in 1452 Gomes Eannes de Azurara, a Portuguese royal official, began to compose a history of of the life and work of Prince Henry, whose support for early Portuguese exploration has earned him the name "Prince Henry the Navigator." Azurara's history details Portuguese exploration down the African coast until 1448. Having completed The Chronicle of Guinea in 1453, Azurara turned to other duties in his service to the king, and he never completed an intended second volume. Nonetheless, his chronicle gives us a revealing picture of the spirit behind Portugal's first exploring ventures. Please read some excerpts from this document by clicking on the following link (The Chronicle of Guinea; just read chapter VII, pgs. 27-30). Once you have read this passage, I would like you all to consider and discuss the following: What event seems to have sparked Portuguese interest in exploring the oceans off Africa's west coast? What were the anticipated economic benefits from the Portuguese voyages? What religious goals did Henry hope to achieve? Does Azurara give the impression that Henry was motivated more by religion than economic gain? What does the document reveal about the extent of Portuguese knowledge of Africa in the mid-fifteenth century? Your thoughts...