Prince Henry the Navigator Although Prince Henry the Navigator was neither a sailor nor a navigator, he sponsored a great deal of exploration along the west coast of Africa. The Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator launched the first great European voyages of exploration. European explorers used another tool for figuring out direction—a compass. The compass left and the astrolabe right were used in the s.
These tools helped explorers sail across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Around the same time, the Portuguese began to explore the North African coast. Diogo Silves reached the Azores island of Santa Maria in , and in the following years, Portuguese discovered and settled the rest of the Azores. Within two decades of exploration, Portuguese ships bypassed the Sahara.
Later, this monopoly would be enforced by two Papal bulls and , giving Portugal the trade monopoly for the newly appropriated territories, laying the foundations for the Portuguese empire. The long-standing Portuguese goal of finding a sea route to Asia was finally achieved in a ground-breaking voyage commanded by Vasco da Gama. His squadron left Portugal in , rounded the Cape and continued along the coast of East Africa, where a local pilot was brought on board who guided them across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut in western India in May Reaching the legendary Indian spice routes unopposed helped the Portuguese improve their economy that, until Gama, was mainly based on trades along Northern and coastal West Africa.
These spices were at first mostly pepper and cinnamon, but soon included other products, all new to Europe. This led to a commercial monopoly for several decades. While following the same south-westerly route as Gama across the Atlantic Ocean, Cabral made landfall on the Brazilian coast.
Cabral recommended to the Portuguese king that the land be settled, and two follow-up voyages were sent in and The land was found to be abundant in pau-brasil , or brazilwood, from which it later inherited its name, but the failure to find gold or silver meant that for the time being Portuguese efforts were concentrated on India.
The route meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean, or the dangerous Arabian Peninsula, and that the entire voyage would be made by sea. England's COVID restrictions stipulate that only 30 people, all masked and socially distanced, are allowed to attend funerals. This excludes the pallbearers and clergy. Prince Harry is among the family members who will attend the service. His pregnant wife Meghan, however, has been given doctor's orders not to travel.
Harry, who carries the title Duke of Sussex, now lives in the US with his wife and has not returned to the UK since stepping down as a senior royal last year. In another departure from the norm, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he will not attend the funeral in order to make room for royal family members. The current period of national mourning, with flags flying at half-mast at all UK government buildings, will end on the day of the funeral.
The royal family will observe two weeks of mourning but members will continue to attend engagements and wear black mourning bands where appropriate. Gun salutes took place across the UK and in Gibraltar at midday last Saturday. Royal Navy ships at sea also fired salutes in tribute to the duke, who served as a naval officer during World War Two.
Local elections are scheduled for May 6, but Conservative and Labour MPs have been instructed to refrain from election-related media appearances until after the funeral. The prime minister's press conferences and announcements will also be strictly limited to COVID matters during that time. Parliament convenes on Monday to pay tribute to the duke, after which some local campaigning will resume from Tuesday onwards.
Original plans for the days leading up to the funeral and the ceremony itself have had to be dramatically scaled back due to COVID restrictions. Members of the public have been asked not to gather at royal residences, nor to leave floral tributes — but rather have been asked to make donations to charities close to the duke's heart. Nevertheless, people have continued to place flowers, cards and tributes outside Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
The public can also post their personal tributes on an online condolence book. Prince Philip's early years were marked by tragedy. When he was still young his mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in an asylum. Once goods reached these ports, they were then monopolized by the northern Italian city-states, especially Venice or Genoa, which distributed the products throughout Europe.
Spices were more a necessity than a luxury to Europeans. During winter, they had to eat meat from animals that had been slaughtered in the fall. Much of this meat was spoiled by the time it was consumed, and spices, especially pepper, could disguise the taste and smell. Prices in Europe for these goods were high, and profits were good. The Portuguese hoped they could find their own route to the Indies and break the Venetian stranglehold. Because of their ignorance of the large size of the African continent, the Portuguese were obsessed with conquering Morocco in North Africa, which they saw as a stepping stone to control the gold trade.
A fleet of two hundred vessels landed troops outside the walls of the city, and it fell to the Portuguese in after just one day of fighting. From here on, Prince Henry the Navigator set Portugal on its course towards overseas expansion. He established a center for study of navigation, naval architecture, and astronomy at Sagres in southern Portugal, where they developed a powerful ship called the caravel.
Its advantage over the older ships was its triangular sail, which could be trimmed to allow the ship to proceed in either cross or head winds. Prince Henry began dispatching ships into the Atlantic with orders to proceed as far as possible, map the coast or any islands sighted, and return. Soon, one of his captains came across the islands of Madeira and Azores. Many uneducated people believed in sea monsters, huge whirlpools, a searing sun and boiling waters in the outer regions of the Atlantic Ocean that killed anyone who came close.
Prince Henry ordered one of his most trusted captains, Gil Eanes, to round Cape Bojador, the feared place, where some believed boiling waters produced an intense heat which no man could survive. It is said that Eanes turned back fifteen times before finally passing it in Within a decade after Eanes' breakthrough, Prince Henry's ships began to bring gold dust and slaves back from the African coast. When Prince Henry died in , some miles of African coastline had been discovered and partially mapped, and the Azores and Madeira Islands were active colonies.
In the next two decades, Portuguese captains made more progress, venturing down the northwestern coast of Africa past present-day Sierra Leone and Liberia into the Gulf of Guinea. At this time, the Portuguese were enjoying a tremendous advantage over other European nations in both ship design and navigation. They had been able to determine their latitude by sighting the North Star through an Astrolabe and measuring the apparent distance of the star from the horizon. Eventually, they were also able to explore waters south of the equator where the North Star was not visible.
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