Henry the Navigator (13941460), prince of Portugal, noted as the
patron of navigation and exploration, born in Oporto. He was the third
son of John I, king of Portugal. Henry participated in the capture of
Ceuta in North Africa from the Moors in 1415. Subsequently he made his
residence at Sagres, Portugal, near Cape Saint Vincent, and there
established an observatory and the first school for navigators in
Europe. Henry also made improvements in the art of shipbuilding. The
caravel, a sailing ship, was designed at Sagres. He made no voyages
himself, but under his direction many important expeditions were
undertaken along the west coast of Africa. Henry's navigators reached
Madeira in 1420, sailed around Cape Bojador in 1434, sailed to Cape
Blanc in 1441, rounded Cape Verde in 1445, and reached the mouth of the
Gambia River in presentday Gambia about 1446. History Up to the Middle
Ages, the history of Portugal is inseparable from that of Spain.
Presentday Portugal became a part of the Roman province of Lusitania in
the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century AD control of the region passed
to the Visigoths, and in the 8th century it was included in the area of
Moorish Muslim conquest. In 997 the territory between the Douro and
Minho rivers (now northern Portugal) was retaken from the Moors by
Bermudo II, king of León, and in 1064 the reconquest was completed as
far south as presentday Coimbra by Ferdinand I, king of Castile and
León. The reconquered districts were then organized into a feudal
county, composed of Spanish fiefs. Portugal later derived its name from
the northernmost fief, the Comitatus Portaculenis, which extended around
the old Roman seaport of Portus Cale (presentday Oporto). In 1093 Henry
of Burgundy came to the assistance of Castile when it was invaded by the
Moors. In gratitude Alfonso I of Castile made Henry count of Portugal.
On the death of Alfonso in 1109, Count Henry, and later his widow,
Teresa, refused to continue feudal allegiance to Leon. He invaded León
and began a series of peninsular wars, but with little success. In 1128
his son, Alfonso Henriques, later Alfonso I, king of Portugal, rebelled
against his mother. The Portuguese knights accepted Alfonso as king in
1143, and in 1179 the pope recognized the independence of Portugal.
The Medieval Kingdom of Portugal Alfonso I, aided by the Templars and other military orders sworn to fight the Moors, extended the border of the new kingdom as far south as the Tagus River. His son Sancho I, who reigned from 1185 to 1211, encouraged Christians to settle in the reconquered area by establishing selfgoverning municipalities there. The Cistercian monks occupied the land and promoted efficient agricultural methods. In the late 12th century, the Almohads, a Muslim dynasty from North Africa, temporarily halted the Christians' southward movement, but after their defeat in 1212 at Las Navas de Tolosa in Castile the reconquest continued. King Alfonso III, who reigned from 1248 to 1279, completed the expulsion of the Moors from the Algarve and moved the capital of Portugal from Coimbra to Lisbon. He also began the practice of governing with the aid of a Cortes (representative assembly), which included members of the nobility, the clergy, and the citizens, and he increased the power of the monarchy at the expense of the church. His son Diniz, called the Farmer King because of his encouragement of agriculture, founded the nation's first university at Coimbra and was responsible for the development of the Portuguese navy. In 1294 he signed a commercial treaty with England, beginning a sequence of alliances between the two countries. Diniz's successor, Alfonso IV, joined with Alfonso XI of Castile to win a major victory over the Moors at the Battle of the Salado River in 1340. In this period the royal houses of Castile and Portugal frequently intermarried, repeatedly raising the possibility that one of the kingdoms might be absorbed by the other. After the death of Ferdinand I, the last of the legitimate descendants of Henry of Burgundy, his illegitimate half brother John I secured the Portuguese throne in 1385, after two years of civil war. His branch of the Burgundian line became known as the house of Aviz. John's reign was one of the most notable in Portuguese history. He successfully defended the kingdom against Castilian attack and in 1385 defeated Castile decisively in the Battle of Aljubarrota. In 1386 England and Portugal allied themselves permanently by the Treaty of Windsor. The greatest fame of John's reign, however, rests on the work done under the direction of his son Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, in exploring the African coast for an eastward route to the Indies. A century of exploration and conquest began, which made Portugal one of the greatest colonial powers in the world. In 1418 and 1419 Portuguese navigators explored Madeira and in 1427 discovered the Azores. A successful Portuguese military campaign in Morocco resulted in the capture of Ceuta in 1415.
The Era of Portuguese Expansion Madeira and the Azores rapidly became important centers of sugar production, and the capture of Ceuta gave Portugal a foothold in Africa, providing the impetus for further exploration of the African coast. Using the caravel, a new type of light sailing vessel especially adapted for Atlantic voyages, Portuguese mariners sailed as far south as Cape Verde in 1444, and by 1460 they had reached Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, John I's successors, King Duarte (reigned 143338) and Alfonso V, sent further expeditions to Morocco, capturing the cities of Tangier and Arzila (Asilah).
The Reign of John II King John II restored the prestige the monarchy had lost at home during the reigns of his two predecessors, subjecting the turbulent nobles to his authority. Abroad, he founded (1482) a Portuguese stronghold at Elmina, in presentday Ghana, and established relations with the kingdom of the Kongo (in presentday Angola). In 1487 and 1488, Bartholomeu Dias became the first to sail around the southern end of Africa, opening the sea route to the Orient. After Christopher Columbus's voyage to America in 1492, Portugal and Spain concluded the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), allocating to Portugal all undiscovered lands east of a line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. See Demarcation, Line of.
Emanuel and His Successors (14951580) Under King Emanuel, Portuguese power reached its height. From 1497 to 1499 Vasco da Gama made the first voyage to India following the route discovered by Dias, and inaugurated a lucrative trade in spices and other luxuries between Europe and South Asia. Led by Afonso de Albuquerque, the Portuguese occupied Goa, India, in 1510, Malacca (now Melaka, Malaysia) in 1511, the Moluccas (in presentday Indonesia) in 151214, and Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf in 1515. During the same period they opened up trade with China and established relations with Ethiopia. As other Portuguese kings had done, Emanuel dreamed of uniting Portugal and Spain under his rule and successively married two daughters of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I. Under pressure from his Spanish relations, he followed their example by expelling Jews and Muslims from his domains in 1497, thus depriving Portugal of much of its middle class. His son, John III, promoted the settlement of Brazil and (again influenced by the example of Spain) introduced (1536) the Inquisition into Portugal to enforce religious uniformity. By the time he died in 1557, Portugal had begun to decline as a political and commercial power. This trend continued under King Sebastian, who was killed during another expedition against Morocco in 1578. On the death of his successor, King Henry, in 1580, the Aviz dynasty came to an end.
The Habsburg and Braganza Dynasties When Henry died, seven claimants disputed the succession to the throne. The most powerful was Philip II, king of Spain, who in 1580 became Philip I of Portugal. The annexation of Portugal to the Spanish Habsburg monarchy subjected it to the heavy expenses of Spanish wars in a period known as the Sixty Years' Captivity. After 1600, Portuguese domination of trade with the East Indies was lost to the Dutch and the English. Under Philip I, Portugal enjoyed considerable autonomy, but his successors, Philip II (Philip III of Spain) and Philip III (Philip IV of Spain), treated it as a Spanish province, provoking widespread discontent. After unsuccessful revolts in 1634 and 1637, Portuguese conspirators with the support of France won independence for their kingdom in 1640. John, duke of Braganza, was elected John IV, first king of the house of Braganza, which ruled Portugal as long as the monarchy endured.
John IV and His Successors (16401816) King John expelled the Dutch from Brazil, which they had occupied in 1630, and renewed the traditional tie with England. Although further weakened by conflicts with Spain in the second half of the 17th century, Portugal recovered a measure of prosperity in the 18th century, after gold and diamonds were discovered in Brazil. Between 1683 and 1750, during the reigns of Pedro II and John V, British merchants came to dominate Portuguese trade; the monarchy became more despotic and the Cortes fell into disuse. During the reign (175077) of Joseph Emanuel, the kingdom was controlled by the chiefminister, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello, marquês de Pombal, considered one of the greatest statesmen in modern Portuguese history. Although a ruthless dictator, he worked to weaken the power of the privileged nobility and the church, encouraged industry and education, and ended the foreign monopoly of trade. Pombal was dismissed, however, at the accession of Joseph Emanuel's daughter Maria I in 1777. During the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, Portugal sided with Britain against France. In 1807, when the armies of Napoleon threatened Portugal, the royal family withdrew to Brazil and made Rio de Janeiro the seat of government. A French army occupied Portugal but was defeated in 1808 by a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington. By the Convention of Sintra (August 30, 1808), the French left the country, but they reinvaded a year later. Wellington again checked the French advance, and by 1811 Portugal was free of French influence. The Portuguese royal family chose, however, to remain in Brazil, which in 1815 was made a separate kingdom. In 1816 John VI succeeded to the two thrones, ruling Portugal through a council of regency.
The Constitutional Monarchy In 1820 the Portuguese army headed a revolution designed to bring about a constitutional government. King John, who agreed to return to Portugal as constitutional monarch, made his son, Dom Pedro, regent of Brazil. Brazil proclaimed itself independent in 1822, and Pedro was made constitutional emperor Pedro I of that country. In Portugal, meanwhile, Pedro's brother, Dom Miguel, appealed to the supporters of absolute monarchy to overthrow the constitutionalists, and an insurrection led by the prince almost succeeded on April 30, 1824. King John managed to remain in power, however, and Miguel went into exile in Vienna. In 1826 Pedro I of Brazil succeeded to the throne of Portugal as Pedro IV. He put into effect a constitutional charter, providing for a parliamentary regime based on authorization of the monarchy rather than on popular will. He then abdicated in favor of his daughter, Maria II, called Maria da Gloria, a 7yearold child. Miguel returned from Vienna in 1828 and, ruling as regent for Maria II, seized the throne. A period of acute civil strife followed. With the help of England, France, and Spain, Maria was restored to the throne in 1834. Political conflict characterized her reign as the Liberals, who supported the 1822 constitution, opposed the Chartists, who supported the 1826 charter. Under her successorsPedro V, who reigned from 1853 to 1861, and Louis, who reigned from 1861 to 1889political strife became less pronounced.