This was a major innovation in Atlantic navigation that would play a major role in future exploration. They also discovered the volta do mar (Portuguese for “turn of the sea “), the navigational technique whereby mariners returning to Portugal from the west coast of Africa had to follow the clockwise currents and trade winds and sail northwest to reach northeast. Soon Henry’s explorers were discovering new lands in the eastern Atlantic, including the Madeira Islands (1420) and Azores (1430), which were quickly colonized. Rigged with 2 or 3 lateen sails, these shallow-keeled Portuguese caravels of 50 to 150 tons were able to tack against the wind and sail upriver into shallow coastal waters. 14th century Catalan map showing Mansa Musa, king of Timbuktu, holding a golden nuggetīecause Mediterranean ships of the era were too slow and heavy for these dangerous forays into the Atlantic Ocean, a new and much lighter ship was developed that was faster and more maneuverable. Soon after, he was exploring the West African coast, hunting pirates and seeking the source of the area’s lucrative gold trade and the legendary Christian Kingdom of Prester John. This Moorish stronghold in the Strait of Gibraltar had long been used as a base for Barbary pirates who raided the Portuguese coast, capturing locals and selling them in the African slave market. In 1415 at the age of 21, Henry convinced his father, King John I, to conquer the port of Ceuta on the North African coast. 15th Century Portuguese Prince, Henry the Navigator Portugal’s Infante Dom Henrique de Avis, Duke of Viseu, better known in the 20th century as Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), would devise a plan to reach Asia by sailing around Africa, from the Atlantic to Indian Ocean. He would pursue trade directly with the far east, avoiding non-Christian middlemen. However in the early 15th century, another bold and visionary European had another idea. 1450, with south at top, inspired by The Travels of Marco Polo Already experienced traders in the eastern Mediterranean, Italian city-states were well positioned to capitalize on increased trade with Arab and Turkish middlemen.

1439), the book was widely copied in many languages, inspiring merchants, seamen and nobility with tales of riches in the far east. Though written before the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press (c. Handwritten notes by Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus on his Latin copy of The Travels of Marco Polo After outfitting a galley for war, he was soon captured and imprisoned for approximately 3 years, during which time he dictated a detailed account of his travels to fellow prisoner Rustichello da Pisa, who after adding his and other tales, published a book with the English title The Travels of Marco Polo. However the Polos returned at a time when Venice was at war with Genoa, another wealthy Italian city-state with an extensive Mediterranean trading network. In 1295, when Italian merchant Marco Polo returned to his native Venice after 24 years travelling across Asia to China with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo, few Europeans had any knowledge of lands beyond the Near East, where four years earlier, 200 years of Christian military campaigns to the Holy Land known as the Crusades had ended. View of Lisbon, 1572, Braun and Hogenberg This is the story of Portuguese exploration of North America, the fourth in the IAT Natural and Cultural Heritage Series. They were followed (1500-02) by Portuguese explorers Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real.

In 1498, just one year after Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto rediscovered North America and six years after fellow Italian Christopher Columbus “discovered” the New World, Portuguese explorers João Fernandes Lavrador and Pêro de Barcelos were the first modern explorers of much of northeastern North America, including the Labrador Peninsula.

Modern daymap of north america in 1784