Lecture Notes: Henry the Navigator and Portuguese Expeditions

Introduction

• Henry the Navigator: A Portuguese prince active in the early to mid-1400s.
• Key figure in initiating a series of exploratory expeditions around Africa.

Objectives of the Expeditions

1. Economic Goals

   • Primary Goal: Discover gold, as Africa was rumored to be rich in gold.
   • Secondary Goal: Establish a direct sea route to Asia to trade directly for spices and cut out the middlemen.

2. Intelligence and Political Goals

   • Assess the reach of the Muslim world in Africa.
   • Determine the extent of Islamic influence and find where it ended.
   • Explore the possibility of the Christian Kingdom of Prester John.
     • Potential alliance with Prester John to encircle the Muslim world.

Discoveries and Colonization

• Azores and Madeira
  • Discovered by the Portuguese by the 1420s.
  • Both locations were uninhabited and subsequently colonized by the Portuguese.
  • Madeira: Site of the first large-scale sugar plantations.
    • Setup by the Portuguese using African chattel slaves.
    • Marked the beginning of plantations managed by Europeans and worked by African slaves.

Significance of the Expeditions

• Impact on American History
  • Set the pattern for later European colonization and plantation systems in the Caribbean, South Central, and North America.

Conclusion

• By the time of Henry the Navigator's death in 1460, the Portuguese had explored nearly all of West Africa.
  • These expeditions laid the groundwork for future exploration and colonization efforts by European powers.