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The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670, brings together a collection of documents – the majority in new English translation – that illustrate aspects of the encounters between the Portuguese and the peoples of north and west Africa. This period witnessed the diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, the emi-gration of Portuguese to west Africa and the islands, and the beginnings of the black ...
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- Overview
- The Crusades: increased religious intolerance and forceful religious conversion
- The lure of gold: finding new routes to trade Eastern goods
- A thirst for glory: European competition for global dominance
- What do you think?
God, gold, and glory motivated European nations to explore and create colonies in the New World.
The year 622 brought a new challenge to Christianity. Near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a prophet named Muhammad claimed he received a revelation that became a cornerstone of the Islamic faith. The Koran, which contained the revelations received by Muhammad, identified Jesus Christ not as God but as a prophet. Islam spread throughout the Middle East and into Europe until 732.
Soon thereafter, European Christians began the Crusades, a campaign of violence against Muslims to dominate the Holy Lands—an area that extended from modern-day Turkey in the north along the Mediterranean coast to the Sinai Peninsula—under Islamic control, partially in response to sustained Muslim control in Europe. The city of Jerusalem is a holy site for Jews, Christians, and Muslims; evidence exists that the three religions lived there in harmony for centuries. But in 1095, European Christians decided not only to reclaim the holy city from Muslim rulers but also to conquer the entire surrounding area.
Despite the consequent religious polarization, the Crusades dramatically increased maritime trade between the East and West. As Crusaders experienced the feel of silk, the taste of spices, and the utility of porcelain, desire for these products created new markets for merchants.
Merchants’ ships brought Europeans valuable goods, traveling between the port cities of western Europe and the East from the 10th century on along routes collectively labeled the Silk Road. However, transporting goods along the Silk Road was costly, slow, and unprofitable. Muslim middlemen collected taxes as the goods changed hands. Robbers waited to ambush treasure-laden caravans.
Competition between the Portuguese and the Spanish motivated both nations to colonize quickly and aggressively. Prince Henry the Navigator spearheaded Portugal’s exploration of Africa and the Atlantic in the 1400s. Portuguese sailors successfully navigated an eastward route to West Africa, where they established a trading foothold. Portugal then spread its empire down the western coast of Africa to the Congo, along the western coast of India, and eventually to Brazil and the Atlantic islands. Although the Portuguese did not rule over an immense landmass, their strategic holdings of islands and coastal ports gave them almost unrivaled control of nautical trade routes.
The travels of Portuguese traders to western Africa also acquainted the Portuguese with the African slave trade, already widely in practice in West Africa and funded by sugar production on the newly colonized Atlantic islands. Upon discovering the immense global market for sugar, the Portuguese began to trade enslaved people across the Atlantic to toil on the sugar plantations. The Portuguese fort Elmina Castle, located in modern-day Ghana, became more of a holding pen for enslaved Africans from the interior of the continent than a trading post, as the markets for slave labor in both Europe and then the New World boomed.
How did the Crusades influence European colonization projects?
Explain the relationship between religion, commerce, and conquest at the beginning of European exploration and colonization.
Imagine you are a European explorer in the 1400s. Do you think you would be most motivated by religious conversion, global market opportunities, or competition with other European nations? Why?
[Notes and attributions]
Access to commodities such as fabrics, spices, and gold motivated a European quest for a faster means to reach South Asia. It was this search that led the Portuguese down the coast of West Africa to Sierra Leone in 1460.
The monastic decadence in the Portugal Pombaline period (1750 – 77) and in the liberal period up to 1820, followed by the subsequent extinction of the Portuguese religious orders in 1834, and the increase in Gallican and Jansenist influences, made missionary conditions in Brazil deplorable in the last days of the colonial period.
28 de jul. de 2021 · During the Age of Exploration, Portugal explored the North Atlantic islands, the coast of West Africa, the east and west coasts of southern Africa, the west coast of India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the southern coast of China. Major Portuguese colonies included Madeira, Cochin, Goa, Malacca, Brazil, Mozambique, and Angola.
- Mark Cartwright
- Publishing Director
- Portugal entered the Age of Exploration to find new territory and resources.
- The impact on Portugal from the Age of Exploration was to enrich the ruling class from new resources and trade routes. For more ordinary Portuguese...
- During the Age of Exploration, Spain and Portugal were both looking for new resources and trade opportunities. Sometimes in direct competition, the...
6 de mar. de 2018 · Oct 2022. Isaac Boaheng. PDF | The introduction of Christianity into West Africa traces its history to the fifteenth century, because of Portuguese scientific exploration of the... | Find, read...
1 de jan. de 2022 · Portuguese missionary efforts in Africa began with the first contacts in the 1440s. According to the Portuguese chronicler Zurara, spreading Christianity by missionary efforts was one of the goals of Prince Henry the Navigator’s African missions (1444–1461).
