Ferdinand Magellan commanded the first expedition that made it around the world. Portugal monopolized world commerce, but only as long as it managed to keep its knowledge out of the hands of competitors. "So maps were Portugal's secret weapon?" asked Teichner. For example, the mariner's astrolabe, which helped to plot location by measuring the altitude of the sun and stars.Īnd they had the equivalent of today's proprietary computer software: accurate maps, such as the first cartographic representation of Brazilian territory, drawn in 1502.īy order of King Manuel I, the selling of maps showing Portuguese navigations was prohibited outside of Portugal. The Portuguese had the best and most up-to-date navigational tools as well. Neves, was that "you could sail very close to the winds, meaning that you would sail basically where and when you wanted to." In a caravel you weren't restricted to winds that just pushed you along from behind, as square-riggers were. The advantage to the type of rigging, said Lt. It was called the caravel, an ocean-going version of smaller fishing boats. New technology was key, and this is what it looked like, circa 1440: A ship with triangular sails. Goncalves Neves, who heads the research department at the Portuguese Maritime Museum in Lisbon, Portugal's reach extended from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Tanegashima in Japan.įrom Brazil to Japan, with everything in-between. and on it went, each explorer armed with knowledge provided by the last.Īt its peak, said Lt. Then, just two years after that, in 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil.
Ten years later, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias made it around the Cape of Good Hope. But by that time, Portuguese explorers had inched their way south along the coast of Africa, as far as Sierra Leone. "So Christianity and exploration were always tied together?" asked Teichner. The idea, said de Jesus, was to take Christianity to other cultures, to other people, to other lands. Like a venture capitalist, he financed expeditions intended to push the boundaries of the known world - for profit, and to spread Christianity. Here, close to where many explorers began their voyages, Prince Henry surrounded himself with scholars, mapmakers, astronomers, as well as navigators, amassing knowledge and intelligence - the 15th century version of R&D. they believe the sun dived inside the sea and might boil the sea." "They give you a picture, very interesting, how the sun sets here.
"The classical people, Romans, Greeks and other civilizations, they believed this is the point where the world finished," said historian Artur de Jesus of the craggy and windswept southwest corner of Europe. We'll begin at Prince Henry the Navigator's outpost in Sagres. How it happened is a story about innovation.
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