Iberian Expansion
You know that Portugal led the European Age of discovery with several important sea going expeditions down the west coast of Africa under the auspices of Prince Henry the Navigator. Why did Portugal lead Europe in overseas exploration and expansion? Why did Henry support multiple expeditions? What led to early Portuguese successes?
At the beginning of the fifteenth century Portugal had a population of one and a quarter million and an economy dependent on maritime trade with Northern Europe. Although Portugal lacked the wealth and population of its contemporaries, it would lead the European community in the exploration of sea routes to the African continent, the Atlantic Islands, and to Asia and South America over the course of the sixteenth century.
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Several factors contributed to Portugal becoming the pre-eminent European pioneer in maritime exploration.
1) its geographical position along the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula, coupled with the relative lack of natural resources which promoted the development of a seafaring tradition for trade and fishing.
2) the evolution of a complex maritime economy in which the port cities of Lisbon and Oporto became the commercial centers of the country. The merchant community including a large number of Genoese immigrants from the Italian city state of Genoa, used these port cities as their base of operations from which they financed a number of trading ventures.
3) Portugal benefited from a relatively stable monarchy whose kings encouraged maritime trade and shipping ventures. The Crown gave every possible incentive by implementing tax privileges and insurance funds to protect the investments of ship owners and builders. Often, members of the aristocracy were also investors such as Prince Henry the Navigator. The aristocracy used their political position to facilitate the Crown's granting of royal sanctions that regulated the voyages of exploration made by the merchant community.
Portugal was fortunate to have kings who recognized the kingdom's dependency on overseas trade and assisted in its expansion in every possible way. The stability of the monarchy was essential to the establishment of sustainable economic growth, thus the stability of the Portuguese monarchy gave the kingdom a seventy-year head start over the Spanish who were distracted by a civil war and the Reconquista of Granada. It was not until Columbus' voyage in 1492 that the Spanish were finally in a position to challenge Portugal's predominance in exploration.
Much of the
credit should go to Prince Henry the Navigator's mother, Philippa of
Lancaster.
Portugal
While the English and French were fighting the Hundred Years war (which started in 1337) Ferdinand I of Portugal fought three wars with Castile, losing each one and bankrupting the country. After losing the last war (1381–82) Ferdinand’s daughter and heiress, Beatrice was married to the King of Castile. Portugal would thus have gone to Castile on Ferdinand’s death, but a national revolution gave the throne to Ferdinand’s half brother, João I. As a result Castile invaded Portugal.
The Archbishop of Braga, primate of the church in Portugal made an agreement with Prince John of Gaunt, son of England's king Edward III, and arranged that John's daughter, Philippa of Lancaster, would be married to the 28-year-old King João I and become queen of Portugal in exchange for England's aid against Castile. King João I was forced by necessity to agree to these terms although he had no intention of fulfilling his part of the agreement.
Initially the king retreated to the country for two months with his mistress and their two illegitimate children, and sent back protestations that his monastic oath would prevent his ever contracting a marriage. He was Master of Avis - a crusading order of the church (like the knights Templars and the Hospitaliers) and therefore was supposed to be celibate. John of Gaunt immediately produced a letter from the pope absolving the king of his vows of celibacy but the king continued to avoid the marriage.
On February 2, 1387 John sent the king a demand, delivered by an army of England's best troops, that the marriage take place at once or England would withhold from Portugal a loan that was desperately needed. King João I finally capitulated and later that month, on Candlemas Day, the Archbishop of Braga united the sullen king with the mortified princess in a resplendent ceremony. In public the royal couple played their parts but in private King João treated his bride harshly. After the ceremony he left her at once for the camp of his army and plunged into the campaign against Castile.
Philippa was older than King João I by a few years and had already been refused by several other royal bachelors, notably by King Charles VI of France and Albert, Duke of Bavaria. Despite these rejections Philippa would prove herself to be an extraordinary ruler and mother of a great empire. She had received a remarkable education as a girl studying under the Flemish poet Froissart, the foremost chronicler of medieval courts. Another of her tutors was the Friar John, the great pioneer in physics and chemistry, who presumably developed in her a sense of critical inquiry that was to become one of her outstanding characteristics. Her mentor was Geoffrey Chaucer, an close friend of her father's. Her father's confessor was the reformer John Wycliffe, who was Professor of Philosophy at Oxford and the first translator of the Bible into English. He also played a role in molding Philippa to be free of superstition thus enabling her to become a tolerant and enlightened leader.
JohnWycliffe
Geoffrey Chaucer
Froissart
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
King João I initially refused to accept Philippa as his wife because he felt forced to go through with the marriage. Thus he avoided her and sought solace between campaigns from his mistress in Lisbon. This situation reminded Philippa of her father's own mistress who dominated her childhood home to the detriment of her mother. Philippa was determined not to go through the same humiliating experience in her own household. She waited patiently until the king was away at the battlefront, and sent a group of clerics and knights to the house where his mistress lived. The mistress was then committed to the convent of Santos where the king could not get to her. Philippa took pains to make certain that her rival was treated with every respect and given a dignified establishment with an ample allowance. Philippa then adopted the king's two illegitimate children and reared them with her own children as they were born.
Eventually Philippa gained her husband's respect and affection. She bore him ten children.
Over the next two generations King João I delegated the administration of civil affairs to Philippa while he guarded the kingdom's frontiers. Because of her close relationship to the English throne Philippa was able to improve the diplomatic and commercial bonds between the two kingdoms. She was also able to improve internal relations between the Portugal's middle class and the aristocracy, as well as the relations between the Christian and Jewish communities.
By the year 1410 Philippa and João had ruled Portugal together for a quarter of a century, during which the kingdom had been constantly at war with Castile and the Moors. All trade, finance, and taxation were designed as war measures. The law at the time compelled every able-bodied man not serving in the armed forces to labor for a certain number of days per year on the walls and defenses of his home town. In addition, all male non-combatants were required to serve some weeks annually in the watchtowers and observation posts on the inland borders with Castile and along the seacoast to defend against Moorish raiders. The expense of this extended warfare and the lack of metallic material for coins exhausted the royal treasury, forcing Philippa to issue a bizarre fiat money, in the form of leather tokens, as legal tender. In 1411 there was a political change in the enemy kingdom of Castile and the situation drastically changed. Suddenly Portugal was largely at peace.
With peace came the totally upheaval of Portugal's war economy. Thousands of soldiers, sailors, mechanics, and shipyard workers were thrown into unemployment. The royal councilors feared the danger of a civil war from the domestic turmoil of peace and suggested a foreign war as a diversion. Others advisors pushed for a resumption of hostilities against Castile. Another suggestion was to send an army to help the emperor of Austria against the Turks but King João vetoed sending the kingdom's defenders so far away. Philippa proposed sending an armed expedition to the Muslim kingdom of Fez (Morroco) in order to reach the kingdom of Prester John, the fabled African Christian ruler. Philippa believed that an alliance with Prester John would give Portugal access to the Indian sources of spices and oriental products, thereby destroying the monopoly of Egypt and Venice over the spice trade. Although the majority of the royal council harshly criticized Philippa's proposal, history eventually proved her right as her successors, King João II and King Manuel the Fortunate, both implemented similar policies of pursuing the Indian trade.
Philippa's proposal was not based on a whim but on facts inspired by her extensive readings of the most respected scholars of that age. These included the written account by the Greek historian Herodotus of a voyage around Africa from the Red Sea, south through the Indian Ocean, and north up the Atlantic to Gibraltar, made centuries before Christ by Phoenician galleys at the command of the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho. Philippa also studied the Roman historian Pliny who chronicled a southerly voyage along the southwestern African coast by a Carthaginian named Hanno. She was also aware of the voyages of Lief Ericson across the Atlantic to Greenland that led her to assume that the ocean could be traversed safely without fear of superstitious monsters. Philippa probably studied the popular account of Marco Polo's expedition to the Orient. All of these sources corroborated the personal testimonies of hundreds of Genoese, Venetians, Byzantines, Jewish, and Moorish merchants who all traveled from the eastern coast of Africa to the Malabar coast of India where they traded in the bazaars of Calicut.
Using her vast knowledge the queen not only conceived of the bold plan of an invasion of North Africa, but she also painstaking worked to win political support for it among the royal council. On her suggestion, spies were sent to Ceuta to report back concerning the feasibility of her plan. One spy returned with information about the great south central African market and the importation of gold through Timbuktu, the hub of that particular trade network. This was the first information that Europeans had about the source of Arab gold, until this point they had believed that the gold was brought from India. The importance of this discovery was immense because the Arabic states were the only suppliers for gold-starved Europe, now the capture of Ceuta became an even more attractive option since it could potentially save Portugal's crippled economy.
With this information Philippa believed that the Florentine bankers could be persuaded to finance her invasion, she was correct and the bankers joined the enterprise. Philippa then sought the good will of the clergy and their assistance in winning popular support for the invasion. Once the blessing of Rome was secured, the queen had to convince her husband to authorize the undertaking. At this time King João I was tired of war and considered the stronghold of Ceuta impregnable. He flatly refused the lure of gold and religious glories. Philippa then enlisted the aid of her three oldest sons, all eager to win the spurs of knighthood, to convince their father. Eventually King João I yielded once he realized that his wife had managed to convince the majority of her former detractors of the logical and potential of her proposal.
It took three years of active preparation before the army and fleet were ready for the invasion. At this stage Philippa stepped aside to allow her husband and sons to take over the planning of the expedition. She was now over sixty years old and exhausted from the task of financing and assembling the expedition. Disaster struck when Philippa contracted the plague and failed to recover. When she knew her end was near, she called her children to her. On her deathbed Philippa made her three oldest sons and daughter swear a solemn vow to carry out her dream of trying to gain an alliance with the kingdom of Prester John and through this gain access to the Indies. On July 25, 1415, Philippa was dead, but the fleet of over two hundred vessels carried out her invasion and successfully conquered Ceuta.
Prince Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry the Navigator was the fifth child and fourth son of King João I (John I) and Queen Philippa. Henry was somewhat of a paradox: a dreamer, a scholar, and a monk who nevertheless possessed the instincts of a businessman. Essentially, Prince Henry was a religious man, committed to breaking the hold of heathens and securing the triumph of Christianity in Africa.
The crusading legacy of Portugal exerted tremendous influence during Prince Henry's time. The expulsion of Islamic North Africans from the Algarve was still a part of the living memory of most Portuguese, and the four great military orders, St. John, Santiago, Aviz, and Christ, still occupied their castles throughout the Portuguese realm. The importance of these military orders cannot be understated, for Prince Henry's own connections to the Order of Christ would play a significant role during the early years of Portuguese expansion.
Suppression of the Knights Templars and the Order of Christ
The Order of Christ was the Portuguese derivative of the Knights Templar who were one of the orders of crusading knights that in the previous two centuries had assumed the responsibility of keeping open the routes to the Holy Land. When accusations of sodomy, blasphemy, and witchcraft were leveled against the Templars in the early fourteenth century, the Templars were quickly condemned. On Friday, October 13, 1307, the king of France gave orders to arrest all Templars residing within his domains and called upon the Pope to issue a Bull outlawing the Order throughout Christendom. The history of Templars in Portugal, however, was different. The Templars had helped to expel the North Africans from the Algarve, and King Diniz could not forget this service. Rather than ignoring the Pope's instructions, King Diniz modified them. The knights were allowed to escape from Portugal. King Diniz seized and occupied the property of the Templars and established his own national order, The Military Order of Christ. The new knights continued to wear the Templar's crusading cross as their emblem and frequented the Portuguese Court.
Another influence on Prince Henry's behavior was the search for knightly honor. Like many European courts of the time, chivalric traditions were very important. It was this moral and ethical code that governed practically all conduct and in which the aristocracy looked for achievement. Under the influence of English chivalry, King João introduced coats-of-arms, crests and mottoes for members of the Portuguese Court. For himself, the king chose the motto "Il me plaît", "He pleases me". Following the king's lead, Prince Henry chose "Talent de bien faire". Talent did not mean power, nor did it mean faculty. Rather, it meant "desire". The desire to do well.
Ceuta
The city of Ceuta, lay opposite Gibraltar, and served as the launching point for pirates operating in the straits, and was the port where many Christian prisoners began their tenure as slaves. It was the northern terminus of caravan routes and a center of North African trade activities. It was a logical target.
When Portuguese ships entered Ceuta in 1415, the city was unprepared and fell to the Portuguese with relative ease. Nonetheless it was an expensive enterprise and despite the wealth of the caravan town the Portuguese failed to recover the cost of the expedition or the three thousand men left to garrison the town. Although a financial failure, the fall of Ceuta greatly added to the prestige of King João, his sons and to Portugal.
The Europeans were completely ignorant of what lay beyond Cape Bojador. The two captains Prince Henry chose for his first expedition of exploration were not experienced sailors. Perhaps the selection was deliberate, for it seemed unlikely that any experienced sailor who had come into contact with the myths and legends surrounding sea travel would willingly sail into the unknown. They returned without success.
Prince Henry persevered and sent expedition after expedition into the "Sea of Darkness", as they called unknown water, in a fifteen-year attempt to round Cape Bojador. Even though he exhorted his captains with promises of increased reward and glory, it was not until 1434 that Gil Eanes (sometimes spelled "Eannes") managed to round the Cape. The physical distance traveled was not what was significant about this voyage. Rather, what was important was that Eanes traveled beyond Cape Bojador and returned to Portugal, eliminating in one broad stroke many of the myths and legends about the "Sea of Darkness".
A number of explanations have been offered as to why it took Portuguese sailors so long to accomplish this task. The two most significant problems were that those ships which navigated along the shores of the African coast risked running aground and those who attempted to steer into the open water and strayed too far could be blown out to sea. Eanes succeeded because he did not attempt to sail in sight of land. Rather, Eanes charted a wide course into the Atlantic before altering his course and turning back towards Africa. When Eanes encountered land again, Cape Bojador was behind him.
As word spread throughout Europe of the Portuguese expeditions, sailors, astronomers, cartographers, and geographers began to arrive at Sagres to offer their services to Prince Henry. There were Christians, Jews, and Arabs - Prince Henry had discovered the Arabs' superior navigational skills while at Ceuta years before - and what emerged at Sagres was not so much a school of navigation as much as it was a community of scholars, under the direction of Prince Henry, who joined together to conquer the unknown.
FINANCIAL REALITIES OF EXPLORATION & COLONIZATION: THE DEBACLE AT TANGIER
As the exploration of the African coast proceeded, the Portuguese colony at Ceuta was rapidly becoming a drain on the national treasury and it was realized that without the city of Tangier, possession of Ceuta was worthless. When Ceuta was lost to the Portuguese, the camel caravans switched to Tangier as their destination. Ceuta rapidly became an isolated community. The cost of garrisoning generated further losses, a situation that might be reversed if Portugal were to capture Tangier. There was, however, another reason to launch a military campaign against Tangier. Prince Fernando, Prince Henry's youngest brother, was only eleven years old when the Portuguese captured Ceuta and he had not won his spurs in battle like his older brothers. After much prodding, and some court intrigue, Prince Henry managed to convince his brother the king to begin preparations for an attack on Tangier in 1436.
In stark contrast to the attack on Ceuta years before, the Portuguese assault on Tangier was poorly conceived and badly executed. When the Portuguese fleet set sail in August 1437, it contained only 6,000 troops; Portuguese planners originally estimated that it would take 14,000 soldiers to comprise an adequate striking force. Furthermore, no attempt was made by Prince Henry to disguise his intention to attack the city, and the North Africans were well prepared to turn back the Portuguese. Three times Prince Henry attempted to assault the city, and all three times his armies were repulsed.
Only after his chaplain deserted him and told the North Africans the details of the new assault did the full measure of the futility of his attacks grip Prince Henry. Realizing that his position was hopeless, Prince Henry asked the North African leader, Sala-ben-Sala, to dictate his terms for surrender. The North African's terms were harsh: an exchange of hostages - Prince Henry's brother, Prince Fernando, for one of Sala-ben-Sala's sons - and the Portuguese would have to abandon the city of Ceuta. The exchange of hostages was a show of good faith easily agreed upon by the two leaders but it soon became clear that Sala-ben-Sala would have to wrestle Ceuta from the Portuguese. Sala-ben-Sala declared that the Portuguese would have to abandon Ceuta before Prince Fernando would be released. When the Portuguese protested, and reminded the North Africans that they were holding one of the king's sons, Sala-ben-Sala replied that he had many other sons and that he did not particularly care for the one the Portuguese were holding. Thus, Prince Henry had to make a decision, either he could sacrifice the city of Ceuta to obtain his brother's release, or he could keep Ceuta and condemn Fernando to imprisonment. The city of Ceuta was deemed to be an important outpost of Christianity against the infidel and even the Pope advised against trading Ceuta for Prince Fernando's life. The city could not be sacrificed for one man, even for the brother of the king of Portugal. Prince Fernando died in captivity four years later.
Prince Henry returned devastated from the debacle at Tangier. After a year, He resumed his exploration of the sea with new-found vigor determined to avenge the defeat and humble the Muslims by conquering the whole of Africa. Prince Henry committed himself to finding the fabled Prester John in order to bring the battle directly to his enemies.
An incredible patchwork of hearsay and rumor contributed to the legend of Prester John but what was significant about Prester John for Prince Henry was not the land of riches that could be found within the borders of Prester John's kingdom, but the belief that a Christian king had managed to establish and sustain an empire in the heart of Muslim-held territory. Therefore, locating and allying with Prester John meant delivering a devastating blow to the Muslims.
Old World Contact's Prester John
Henry sent an expedition in 1441 to "make peace" with the indigenous populations of North Africa. Instead after sailing as far as Cabo Branco (Cape Blanco), his captains returned with ten prisoners. One of the prisoners happened to be the chief of the tribe by the name of Adahu. Fortunately for the Portuguese, Adahu spoke Arabic and could communicate with an Arabic translator.
Upon returning to Sagres, Adahu described what he knew of Africa and the land-based trade routes. The questioning of Adahu was undoubtedly an exciting exercise for Prince Henry; for the first time since the capture of Ceuta, Prince Henry was able to verify the information gathered by explorers with Adahu's first-hand knowledge. The capture of Adahu also marked the beginning of the use of the indigenous population as interpreters for subsequent voyages.
An envoy was sent to the Pope to report the information gathered by Prince Henry and to request that the Portuguese Prince be granted spiritual jurisdiction over all the lands he "discovered" to the south. Prince Henry also wanted that those who lost their lives on these voyages be considered to have died while on a crusade. The Church agreed and these concessions were matched by the Portuguese monarch. Prince Henry was given a charter entitling him to one-fifth of the profits of the expedition, normally a prerogative reserved for the Crown. All captains sailing down the African coast must first seek Prince Henry's permission.
Certainly, Portugal was interested in developing markets and resources to stimulate its economy. The reality, however, is that for the first twenty years, the revenue gathered from such voyages was negligible, leading some to speculate that the financing for the voyages must have come from a private source, including Prince Henry's own fortune. Although the main source of his revenue was not available until later in his life - the product of the concessions granted to him by the Portuguese Crown - it must be remembered that Prince Henry had control over the Military Order of Christ. Thus, the Military Order of Christ may have supplied the bulk of capital required to finance the early years of Prince Henry's explorations. The use of funds from a religious order made it imperative that exploration should be justified as having a high religious purpose, such as the conversion of heathens to Christianity or inflicting damage on Islamic territories. After 1443, it is possible to argue that exploration became self-sufficient with the profits from trade and commerce making voyages profitable. For example, merchants could expect a fourfold profit when trading in cloth.
Prince Henry instituted many of the practices that would become standard features of European exploration. By systematically exploring the African coast, Prince Henry inaugurated a policy of exploration that built on the knowledge of previous voyages. Instead of remaining content with the extent of existing knowledge, Prince Henry used the end of one voyage as the beginning for the next. By using interpreters, Prince Henry was able to build an effective and reliable source of information about the areas to be explored by Europeans. Interpreters also significantly contributed to the European voyages of exploration by allowing Europeans to communicate with indigenous populations in a peaceful manner. Such relations were important to establishing friendly trade and gathering information.
THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS
The Atlantic Islands were the birthplace of the Portuguese colonization pattern of exploration, settlement, agricultural conversion of lands, the institution of the plantation model (donatary captaincy), and the incorporation of African slave labor on a large scale. The first recorded Portuguese expedition into the Atlantic took place in 1341 with its destination being the Canary Islands that were known to the ancient Greeks as the Fortunate Islands. The expedition successfully returned to Lisbon with a cargo of four indigenous people, fish oil, red wood and skins. Despite this success there was no immediate follow up to this expedition.
Portuguese ventures at sea then consisted of raiding and trading with towns along the known coastline of Northern Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean. This continued until the era of Prince Henry when the Canary Islands became important as a supply way-station for expeditions sailing the Canary route that was the shortest course to the West African coast. One of Prince Henry's early expeditions into the Atlantic occurred in 1420 with the rediscovery of Madeira. Prince Henry instigated its colonization because it was uninhabited and could easily be converted to the agricultural production of wheat and sugar.
Madeira, one of the earliest colonies to incorporate the plantation system for the production of sugar
By 1500 Madeira was the leading producer of sugar and had incorporated a plantation system that depended heavily on African slave labor. The Azores were discovered in 1427 and colonized with criminals by Prince Henry and his associates. Again the pattern of agricultural production that incorporated the plantation model and slave labor was successful in producing wine, wheat, and sugar. Due to their location, the Azores also became an important way-station for the rapidly expanding African slave trade. This pattern of discovery and settlement was repeated in 1460 with Fernao Gomes' discovery of the Cape Verde Islands, and in 1470 with the discovery of Saõ Tomé. It is important to note that the Portuguese efforts in Africa and Asia were aimed at building trading posts rather than permanent settlements, in this regard the Atlantic Islands were unique until the discovery and settlement of Brazil in 1500.
The Azores
West Africa
The Indian Ocean and the Red Sea Trade
Asia
Spain
The Americas
The Columbian Exchange
Columbus 1492 - 1502 Exploring for Spain
John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) 1497 Exploring for England
John Cabot fl. 1461–98, English explorer, probably b. Genoa, Italy. He became a citizen of Venice in 1476 and engaged in the Eastern trade of that city. This experience, it is assumed, was the stimulus of his later explorations. Like Columbus (though there is no evidence that either influenced the other), he apparently believed that the riches of East Asia might be more easily reached by sailing west. He went to England, probably in the 1480s, and resided chiefly at Bristol, a port then promising as a base for discovery. Under a patent granted by Henry VII (Mar. 5, 1496), Cabot sailed from Bristol in 1497 and discovered the North American coast, touching at Cape Breton Island or Newfoundland. In 1498 he again sailed for America to explore the coast. The fate of the expedition is unknown, although there is presumptive evidence that it reached America and that some of its members returned. The English claims in North America were based on his discovery. His son was Sebastian Cabot.
Hernán Cortés 1519 Exploring for Spain
Hernán Cortés, 1485–1547, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Mexico. Cortés went (1504) first to Hispaniola and later (1511) accompanied Diego de Velázquez to Cuba. In 1518 he was chosen to lead an expedition to Mexico. Although Velázquez later sought to recall his commission, Cortés sailed in Feb., 1519. In Yucatán he rescued a Spaniard who had learned the Mayan language; after a victory over the native people of Tabasco, Cortés acquired the services of a female slave Malinche—baptized Marina—who knew both Maya and Aztec. Having proceeded up the coast, Cortés founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz and was chosen captain general by the cabildo; thus he discarded Velázquez’s authority and became responsible only to Charles V.
Fall of the Aztec Empire Cortés, learning that the Aztec empire of Montezuma was honeycombed with dissension, assumed the role of deliverer and rallied the coastal Totonacs to his standard; he also began negotiations with Montezuma. Scuttling his ships to prevent the return of any Velázquez sympathizers to Cuba, he began his famous march to Tenochtitlán (modern Mexico City), capital of the Aztec empire. He defeated the Tlaxcalan warriors and then formed an alliance with the so-called republic of Tlaxcala; practically destroyed Cholula; and arrived at Tenochtitlán in Nov., 1519. There the superstitious Montezuma received the Spanish as descendants of the god Quetzalcoatl. Cortés seized his opportunity, took Montezuma hostage, and attempted to govern through him.
In the spring of 1520, Cortés went to the coast, where he defeated a force under Pánfilo de Narváez. Pedro de Alvarado, left in command, impetuously massacred many Aztecs, and soon after Cortés’s return the Aztecs besieged the Spanish. In the ensuing battle, Montezuma was killed. The Spanish, seeking safety in flight, fought their way out of the city with heavy losses on the noche triste [sad night] (June 30, 1520). Still in retreat, they defeated an Aztec army at Otumba and retired to Tlaxcala.
The next year Cortés attacked the capital, and after a three-month siege Tenochtitlán fell (Aug. 13, 1521). With it fell the Aztec empire. As captain general, Cortés extended the conquest by sending expeditions over most of Mexico and into N Central America. In 1524–26, Cortés himself went to Honduras, killing Cuauhtémoc, the Aztec emperor, in the course of the expedition.
Later Career In Cortés’s absence his enemies at home gradually triumphed, and after his return his power was made more fictitious than real by the audiencia. Although on his visit to Spain (1528–30) Cortés was made marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, Charles V refused to name him governor. Returning to Mexico, he vainly sent out maritime expeditions, frustrated more than once by Nuño de Guzmán. Subsequently he quarreled with the viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, and in 1540 he again sought justice in Spain. There, neglected by the court, he died.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca 1527 - 1536 Exploring for Spain
Estevanico de Azamor (Stephen the Moor)
animated map of their route Cabeza de Vaca
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca c.1490–c.1557, Spanish explorer. Cabeza de Vaca [cow’s head] was not actually a surname but a hereditary title in his mother’s family; he is frequently called simply Álvar Núñez.
North American Adventures Cabeza de Vaca came to the New World as treasurer in the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez that reached Florida (probably Tampa Bay) in 1528. When hardship and native hostility caused the end of the expedition, he was one of the survivors whose barges were shipwrecked on an island off the Texas coast, possibly Galveston or Mustang Island. Their story is one of the most remarkable in the annals of exploration.
After suffering considerably as slaves of the Native Americans inhabiting the island, Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors escaped and started a long journey overland. His companions were Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andrés Dorantes, and Estevanico. They gained great repute among the Native Americans as healers since remarkable cures were attributed to their Christian prayers. Their route westward is as disputed as is the identity the island of the shipwreck, but after much wandering they did reach W Texas, then probably New Mexico and Arizona, and possibly (some argue) California before, turning south in 1536, they arrived in Culiacán in Mexico and told their story to Spaniards there.
See Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, "Indians of the Rio Grande" (1528-1536) (on this site)
They were almost certainly the first Europeans to see bison, and their stories about the Pueblo gave rise to the legend of the Seven Cities of Cibola, later magnified by Fray Marcos de Niza, and brought explorers in search of El Dorado. Cabeza de Vaca’s own account, Los naufragios [the shipwrecked men] (1542), is the chief document of the startling adventures of his party. An English translation (1851) by Thomas Buckingham Smith is reprinted in I. R. Blacker and H. M. Rosen’s The Golden Conquistadores (1960). See also
A rare complete copy of the 1555 Relación is a central text in the Southwestern Writers Collection of the Southwest Texas State University's Library. Probably the earliest text about exploration of the Americas, the Relación introduces themes to which later American history and texts return again and again: the meeting and, often, clashing of cultures; slavery; captivity; wonder and fear at the vastness of the American landscape. The narrative provides an opportunity to examine the assumptions and responses of an early European among native peoples of the Southwest, struggling (he claims) to be a good Spanish subject, to be a Christian, and simply to survive. Cabeza de Vaca's observations on native bands' cultural practices, child-rearing, eating, religious beliefs, and interactions with the landscape provide anthropologists, biologists, historians, political scientists, geologists, and literary scholars with a wealth of information and suggest his story's historical, anthropological, and literary significance.
South American Career After returning to Spain, Cabeza de Vaca was appointed governor of the Río de la Plata region and reached Asunción after an overland journey from the Brazilian coast in 1542. His South American career was sadly different from that in North America. He got into trouble with the popular Domingo Martínez de Irala, and after he returned from a journey up the Paraná River to Bolivia, he was arrested, accused of high-handed practices, imprisoned for two years, and sent back to Spain. There he was found guilty but was pardoned by the king. Cabeza de Vaca wrote his own account of the South American events in his Comentarios (1555).
Bibliography
See M. Bishop, The Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca (1933); J. U. Terrell, Journey into Darkness (1962); H. Long, The Marvelous Adventures of Cabeza de Vaca (1973).
Hernando de Soto 1539 -1542 Exploring for Spain
Hernando de Soto c.1500–1542, Spanish explorer. After serving under Pedrarias in Central America and under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, the dashing young conquistador was made governor of Cuba by Emperor Charles V, with the right to conquer Florida (meaning the North American mainland).
He led an expedition that left Spain in 1538 and landed on the Florida coast, probably near Tampa Bay, in 1539. That was the start of an adventure that took him and his band nearly halfway across the continent in search of gold, silver, and jewels, which they never found.
After wintering near Tallahassee they went N through Georgia and the Carolinas into Tennessee, then turned S into Alabama, where De Soto was wounded in a battle with Native Americans. He was so determined to continue his treasure hunt that he refused to inform his men that Spanish vessels were off the coast.
In the spring of 1541 they again set forth and were probably the first white men to see and cross the Mississippi. A journey up the Arkansas River and into Oklahoma disclosed no treasures, and, discouraged, they turned back to the banks of the Mississippi. There De Soto died; he was buried in the river, so that the Native Americans, whom he had intimidated and ill-used, would not learn of his death.
His men went west again across the Red River into N Texas, then returned to the Mississippi and followed it to the sea. A remnant of the expedition made its way down the coast to arrive at Veracruz in 1543. The chief chronicle of the expedition is by a Portuguese called the Gentleman of Elvas.
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 1540-1542 Exploring for Spain
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado c.1510–1554, Spanish explorer. He went to Mexico with Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and in 1538 was made governor of Nueva Galicia. The viceroy, dazzled by the report of Fray Marcos de Niza of the great wealth of the Seven Cities of Cibola to the north, organized an elaborate expedition to explore by sea (see Alarcón, Hernando de) and by land.
Coronado, made captain general, set out in 1540 from Compostela, crossed modern Sonora and SE Arizona, and reached Cibola itself—the Zuñi country of New Mexico. He found neither splendor nor wealth in the native pueblos. Nevertheless he sent out his lieutenants: Pedro de Tovar visited the Hopi villages in N Arizona, García López de Cárdenas discovered the Grand Canyon, and Hernando de Alvarado struck out eastward and visited Acoma and the pueblos of the Rio Grande and the Pecos. Alvarado came upon a Native American from a Plains tribe nicknamed the Turk, who told fanciful tales of the wealthy kingdom of Quivira to the east.
Coronado, still hopeful, spent a winter on the Rio Grande not far from the modern Santa Fe, waged needless warfare with Native Americans, then set out in 1541 to find Quivira under the false guidance of the Turk. Just where the party went is not certain, but it is generally thought they journeyed in the Texas Panhandle, reached Palo Duro Canyon (near Canyon, Tex.), then turned N through Oklahoma and into Kansas. They reached Quivira, which turned out to be no more than indigenous villages (probably of the Wichita), innocently empty of gold, silver, and jewels.
The Spanish turned back in disillusion and spent the winter of 1541–42 on the Rio Grande, then in 1542 left the northern country to go ingloriously back to Nueva Galicia and into the terrors of the Mixtón War.
In 1544, Coronado was dismissed from his governorship and lived the rest of his life in peaceful obscurity in Mexico City. He had found no cities of gold, no El Dorado; yet his expedition had acquainted the Spanish with the Pueblo and had opened the Southwest. Subsidiary expeditions from Nueva Galicia to S Arizona and Lower California make the scope of Coronado’s achievement even more astonishing.
Giovanni Verrazano 1524 Exploring for France
Giovanni Verrazano c.1480–1527?, Italian navigator and explorer, in the service of France, possibly the first European to enter New York Bay. Sailing west to reach Asia, Verrazano explored (1524) the North American coast probably from North Carolina to Maine. In 1526, or later, sailing from France, he explored the West Indies, where he was killed by the natives. Based on his discoveries, his brother Gerolamo’s maps (1529) showed a new concept of North America. The name is sometimes spelled Verrazzano.
Jacques Cartier 1535 Exploring for France
Jacques Cartier, 1491–1557, French navigator, first explorer of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and discoverer of the St. Lawrence River. He made three voyages to the region, the first two (1534, 1535–36) directly at the command of King Francis I and the third (1541–42) under the sieur de Roberval in a colonization scheme that failed. On the first voyage he entered by the Strait of Belle Isle, skirted its barren north coast for a distance and then coasted along the west shore of Newfoundland to Cape Anguille. From there he discovered the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island and, sailing to the coast of New Brunswick, explored Chaleur Bay, continued around the Gaspé Peninsula, and landed at Gaspé to take possession for France. Continuing to Anticosti Island, he then returned to France.
Hitherto the region had been considered cold and forbidding, interesting only because of the Labrador and Newfoundland fisheries, but Cartier’s reports of a warmer, more fertile region in New Brunswick and on the Gaspé and of an inlet of unknown extent stimulated the king to dispatch him on a second expedition. On this voyage he ascended the St. Lawrence to the site of modern Quebec and, leaving some of his men to prepare winter quarters, continued to the native village of Hochelaga, on the site of the present-day city of Montreal, and there climbed Mt. Royal to survey the fertile valley and see the Lachine Rapids and Ottawa River. On his return he explored Cabot Strait, ascertaining Newfoundland to be an island. His Brief Récit et succincte narration (1545), a description of this voyage, was his only account to be published in France during his life.
On his third trip he penetrated again to the Lachine Rapids and wintered in the same region, but gained little new geographical information. Roberval did not appear until Cartier was on his way home, and Cartier refused to join him. Although Cartier’s discoveries were of major geographical importance and the claims of the French to the St. Lawrence valley were based on them, he failed in his primary object, the discovery of the Northwest Passage and natural resources. The region remained virtually untouched until the early 17th cent. The best edition of the voyages is H. P. Biggar, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier (1924).
Samuel de Champlain 1603 - 1615 Exploring for France
http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1600-00/Champlain.htm
Samuel de Champlain, 1567–1635, French explorer, the chief founder of New France.
After serving in France under Henry of Navarre (King Henry IV) in the religious wars, Champlain was given command of a Spanish fleet sailing to the West Indies, Mexico, and the Isthmus of Panama. He described this three-year tour to the French king in Bref Discours (1859). In 1603 he made his first voyage to New France as a member of a fur-trading expedition. He explored the St. Lawrence River as far as the rapids at Lachine and described his voyage in Des Sauvages (1603).
With the sieur de Monts, who had a monopoly of the trade of the region, Champlain returned in 1604 to found a colony, which was landed at the mouth of the St. Croix River. In 1605 the colony moved across the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, N.S.), and in the next three years Champlain explored the New England coast south to Martha’s Vineyard, discovering Mt. Desert Island and most of the larger rivers of Maine and making the first detailed charts of the coast. After the sieur de Monts’s privileges had been revoked, the colony had to be abandoned, and through the efforts of Champlain a new one was established on the St. Lawrence River.
In 1608 in the ship Le Don de Dieu, he brought his colonists to the site of Quebec. In the spring of 1609, accompanying a war party of Huron against the Iroquois, Champlain discovered the lake that bears his name, and near Crown Point, N.Y., the Iroquois were met and routed by French troops. The incident is believed to be largely responsible for the later hatred of the French by the Iroquois.
In 1612 Champlain returned to France, where he received a new grant of the fur-trade monopoly. Returning in 1613, he set off on a journey to the western lakes. He reached only Allumette Island in the Ottawa River that year, but in 1615 he went with Étienne Brulé and a party of Huron to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, returning southeastward by way of Lake Ontario. Accompanying another Huron war party to an attack on an Onondaga village in present-day New York, Champlain was wounded and forced to spend the winter with the Huron.
Thereafter Champlain devoted his time to the welfare of the colony, of which he was the virtual governor. He helped to persuade Richelieu to found the Company of One Hundred Associates, which was to take over the interests of the colony. In 1629 Quebec was suddenly captured by the English, and Champlain was carried away to four years of exile in England; there he prepared the third edition of his Voyages de la Nouvelle France (1632). When New France was restored to France in 1632, Champlain returned. In 1634 he sent Jean Nicolet into the West, thus extending the French explorations and claims as far as Wisconsin. He died on Christmas Day, 1635, and was buried in Quebec.
Champlain’s works were issued by the Champlain Society (1922–36) with English and French texts. See also biographies by N. E. Dionne (1905, repr. 1963) and S. E. Morison (1972).
Robert Cavelier sieur de La Salle 1679-1682
La Salle, 1643–87, French explorer in North America, one of the most celebrated explorers and builders of New France.He entered a Jesuit novitiate as a boy but later left the religious life. In 1666 he went to Canada, where he developed a seigniory at Lachine. In 1673 the governor of New France, Frontenac, made him commandant of Fort Frontenac (see Kingston, Ont., Canada). After a visit to France, where he was granted a patent of nobility, La Salle began (1675) to develop the trade at the post. In 1677 he was in France again and obtained a patent to build forts, explore, and trade. When he returned, he brought with him Henri de Tonti, who was his lieutenant in later enterprises.
In 1679 a blockhouse was built at the outlet of the Niagara River, and in August they set out across the Great Lakes in the Griffon, which Tonti had built. That first sailing vessel on the lakes took the adventuring traders to Green Bay; the party then went by land. The Griffon was lost a little later, probably in a storm. La Salle went along Lake Michigan, erected Fort Miami on the site of present St. Joseph, Mich., then continued to the Illinois River. On that stream Fort Creve Coeur was built.
La Salle sent Michel Aco and Father Hennepin on an expedition to the upper Mississippi, while he himself went back to Fort Frontenac for supplies. After La Salle’s departure Tonti was attacked by hostile Iroquois and was forced to flee the settlement. La Salle, returning, found the Illinois posts deserted. He set out to find Tonti and also organized (1681) a Native American federation of the Illinois, the Miami, and smaller tribes to fight the Iroquois.
He was reunited with Tonti at Mackinac Island, and the two men with Father Zenobe Membré and a small party descended the Mississippi to its mouth, arriving Apr. 9, 1682. La Salle took possession of the whole valley, calling the region Louisiana. Tonti went back to the Illinois and at Starved Rock began construction of a village; La Salle joined him, and Fort St. Louis was completed (1682–83).
La Salle was deprived of his authority by the new governor in 1683 and went to France, leaving Tonti in the Illinois country. Given power to colonize and to govern the region between Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico, La Salle set out (1684) with four ships for the mouth of the Mississippi. He never reached it. With three of his ships La Salle reached the Gulf of Mexico; but because of the sandy sameness of the coastline he was unable to find the Mississippi. He and his men landed on the Texas shore, probably on Lavaca Bay. They made futile attempts to reach the Mississippi overland, and the men grew mutinous. On the third attempt the great explorer was murdered by his own men.
Sebastian Cabot explorer in English and Spanish service
b. 1483–86?, d. 1557, ; son of John Cabot. He may well have accompanied his father on the 1497 and 1498 voyages, and he was for many years given the credit for his father’s achievements. In the 19th cent., scholars, finding discrepancies in the Sebastian stories, branded him an impostor and applied his accounts to the 1498 voyage of John Cabot. However, recent research indicates that the Sebastian narratives relate to a later voyage (1509) made in search of the Northwest Passage. He may have reached Hudson Bay. In 1512 he entered Spanish service and in 1518 became chief pilot. After the return of Magellan’s ship Victoria, he sailed (1526) from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with the ostensible purpose of loading spices in the Moluccas. Instead he explored the Río de la Plata country, spending several years along the Paraguay, Plata, and Paraná rivers, but the hostility of the Native Americans and the scarcity of food forced him to leave the country. He returned to Spain in 1530, a distrusted and discredited man. In 1548 he reentered English service, and in 1553 he became governor of a joint-stock company (later the Muscovy Company) organized to seek a Northeast Passage and open trade with China. Under his instructions an expedition sailed the same year under Sir Hugh Willoughby, who was lost in midvoyage and was replaced by Richard Chancellor. The expedition reached the White Sea, and a commercial treaty was negotiated with Russia, breaking the monopoly of the Hanseatic League.
Jesuit Relations
annual reports and narratives written by French Jesuit missionaries at their stations in New France (America) between 1632 and 1673. They are invaluable as historical sources for French exploration and native relations and also as a record of the various indigenous tribes of the region before the influence of settlers and missionaries had changed them. Published originally in Paris in annual volumes, they were translated and edited by R. G. Thwaites (73 vol., 1896–1901).
See bibliography by J. C. McCoy, Jesuit Relations of Canada, 1632–1673 (1937, repr. 1973).
Louis Jolliet and Father Marquett
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610 —1791 The Original French, Latin and Italian Texts with English translations and notes; illustrated by portraits, maps and facsimiles. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State historical Society of Wisconsin. Computerized transcriptions by Tomasz Mentrak