Portugal in the Age of Discovery.docx

Introduction

We intend to embark on a project focusing on Portugal at its peak as a society during the Age of Discovery, starting from the beginning of the Portuguese Empire till the decline of the Portuguese monopoly, during the years 1415-1542.

We are of the opinion that during this time, the Portuguese civilization was going through a period of achievement and progress as it did have an extensive colonial trading empire throughout the world backed by a powerful Thalassocracy and became a major European power. This however ended as the monopoly in economy, politics and culture was broke by other rising European countries.

On that era, Portugal was one of the countries which led Europe into the Age of Discovery. The Age of Discovery was basically the period of time in which the countries in Europe realized that it was of a great need to start searching for “new” part of the world. However, this is proven to be beneficial in constructing modern Europe, in particular Portugal, as we can see in today’s Portugal as a leading power in Europe.

Out of the 4 ‘C’s, we intend to prove that Commerce was the primary reason that led to the success of the Portuguese Empire during this period. Nevertheless, we would also analyze the contribution of the other 3 Cs to the success of Portugal in the Age of Discovery.

The whole basis of the success of Portugal during the Age of Discovery is based on a domino effect. The 4 Cs are closely interlinked as one cause would bring about an effect. We will discuss more about this in the latter part of this report. In our group’s opinion, we believe that all things begun and returned to the Commerce of Portugal.

The 4 ‘C’s

Commerce

The Portuguese were the first European country to establish direct trading routes to the North Africa, Asia and South America. This gave them a head start and an advantage over the other European countries that had not yet begun establishing trade routes. They set up various trading markets on island colonies which were in the way of the sea trade route. This also proved to be very strategically useful when attracting trade. All of these let their Commerce to develop further.

Besides silk, spices and other popular goods, the Portuguese found they could also make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another, along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The infamous European slave trade of the African natives was rampant during that time and they generated a lot of income for the countries that participated in this market.

Throughout the 16th century the Portuguese had no European rivals on the long sea route round Africa. Portugal was a pioneer in establishing an overseas colony for trade, especially in the area of Africa. For many years, the Portuguese were left to their colony in Africa. As there were no rivals for them along the sea route, the Portuguese can monopolise the area alone and have such a great income for their economy. This let the Commerce to progress further.

The Portuguese economy had benefited from its connections with neighbouring Muslim states. A strong economy was well enough established. ...

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The Portuguese economy had benefited from its connections with neighbouring Muslim states. A strong economy was well enough established. The Muslim market involved many lucrative products such as salt, fish, grain and slaves. The trade between Portugal and the Muslim states enabled Portugal to prosper.

The close connections between Portugal and several Islamic kingdoms brought a constant exchange of cultural ideas, and made Portugal a centre of knowledge and technological development. This allowed Portugal to not only be successful but also maintain good relationships with the Muslim states. The Muslim states were very important to them to sustain the import of the spices which can be sold in higher price in Europe as they were one of the few countries which traded spices. Moreover, the Ottoman Empire took control of the Constantinople which was the trading post between the Eastern Country and the European. This condition, however, gave the Portuguese chance to monopolise the spices trading in the Europe and set higher price for it. The European needs the spice for warming their body, especially during winter. Looking at this opportunity, Portugal could set a high price for the spice as they were very important. From trading spices, the Portuguese had a big income for their economy. This was also one of the reasons that emphasize Commerce as the most important ‘C’ among others that led Portugal to succeed during the Age of Discovery.

The colonisation of certain countries by Portugal prompted them to start a market for slavery trade. This provided a great boost to the country’s revenue and prompted them to continue on with this market. This would generate a very large percentage of the income of Portugal’s economy, making the Portuguese extremely successful due to this source of revenue.

Agriculture had diversified since the import of grains from Morocco and other countries. This was fairly important to the success of Portugal as this provided food for the country.

Culture

The Portuguese had strong roots in Catholicism and were very devout Catholics. They had a strong desire to promote their ideas of Catholicism around the world. This created a strong drive to explore the world and spread their ideologies. The promotion of exploration made Portugal into a very influential power. Education, which was managed by the clergies, played an important role in the Portuguese education. This created the drive for Christianity and the fierce zeal to promote it to all the parts of the world. On the time of the Age of Discovery, Church is the highest authority in Portugal. Many aspects of the country were strictly under the control of the clergies and the Church. Undoubtedly, one of the key successes of Portugal is the fact that they mastered the art of global navigation skill which was essential for every expedition. As the domino effect of the good education managed by the clergies, it came out to provide Portugal with masters in navigation. Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) promoted navigation by establishing a Colonial and Naval Institute in 1437. This gave advantage to Portugal because by mastering the skill of navigation, which was further supported by advanced knowledge of Science and Maths, their expeditions would be more effective compared to their rivals such as Spain.

Conflict

The trading conflict with Spain spurred the Portuguese on to progress and to conquer more lands for them to set up markets to sell their goods. Due to this motivating conflict, the Portuguese forced themselves to create more markets on their overseas colonies so as to be able to be on par with the Spanish and earn more revenue for their country. This indirectly caused Portugal to form successful and lucrative overseas markets and this brought in large revenue for the country.

After the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed, the Portuguese started to build forts in their colonized areas to strengthen their defences. This, in a way, allowed a new community to begin and thus a thriving trade “town” was started. The formation of these new communities attracted prospective traders from Portugal to come and start their business. These forts became important as it formed the new trade route in Portugal and generated a lot of revenue for the country. These forts would soon be merged under one rule, which would lead to the Portuguese Empire.

The Portuguese Empire, consisting of mostly traders and travellers, led commerce to develop in the fort. Not only commerce was developing, the traders and the travellers also spread the Catholicism to the native people. Trading soon began happening in the fort with the native people who dwelled in those areas, such as the Portuguese Empire in Indonesia. After a long conflict with the native people, Portugal would eventually manage to monopolise the area, especially, the trade monopoly. The trade monopoly gave a surpass income for the Portuguese Empire. This led to Commerce development of Portuguese Empire as well as Portugal.

Community

Portugal was located at the south-westernmost in the Europe continent. This location of Portugal was strategic to the successful formation of their sea trade monopoly. They also had easy access to the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean, which promoted the formation of a thalassocracy, a state with primarily maritime realms. In this case, Portugal had easy access to the sea and this would encourage them to sail to their colonies and set up trading markets there.

Having colonies as well as easy trade routes provide Portugal opportunities to trade more which is resulting in having more income. Actually this Community supported the other two Cs which are Commerce and Conflict. Without the strategic location, the Commerce of Portugal would not be as successful as it was. Portugal could easily colonize other countries and took advantages of them. This further contributes to the Portugal’s Conflict aspect.

The small population of Portugal also spurred the Portuguese on to go overseas to other countries and set up colonies. Occasionally, they would siphon off a few of the natives and take them back to Portugal to become their slaves. This would lead to the beginnings of slave trade in Europe which would generate much revenue for the country, linking back to the issue of commerce.

The Link Between the 4 ‘C’s

The first reason for Portugal to set on an exploration was to find trading partners from which they could get spices, gold, silver and other items. As we can see here, it started with a Commercial motive. The cultural motives such as to spread their beliefs motivated them as well. The search for slaves, especially African slaves, were also a part of their motives beside the commercial motives, but the main motives were still the commercial motives which was to find more income in order to compete with the other European countries.

In addition to this, Culture was introduced. In order to start the exploration, Portugal needed a good navigation which in this case helped them for a more effective exploration. With the power of Portugal navigation which was one of the best at that time, Portugal could achieve the success in most of the expedition.

Further emphasizing the superiority of their navigation, Portugal’s strategic location which was at the south-westernmost in the Europe continent enabled them to have easy accesses to the Atlantic and Mediterranean ocean and countries there. By having a strategic place, Portugal could trade more frequently and increase its revenue. This is the Community aspect of Portugal which helped them in their success.

However, there was some cases in which they had to confront with Spain. In this competition, both Spain and Portugal were motivated to build more markets in their own colonies. This would further haste the development of the exploration. This was considered as the benefit of Conflicts. In the end, every ‘C’s that are linked to the exploration were beneficial to the Portugal’s Commerce aspect.

Conclusion

As elaborated above, it is clear that it always links to and fro Commerce as the underlying basis for the success of the Portuguese community. In all the above points, most of the points were originated from Commerce. Therefore, it is actually Commerce that has really impacted the Portuguese and brought it one step higher in the Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, it also introduced a long-term effect to Portugal because it has built a strong foundation for the economic development of Portugal. In this case, we define success by weighing the commercial development of the country. However, it is not limited such that on that time, Portugal managed to conquer more than ¾ part of the world. This could also be considered as a success based on the number of colonies. After all, we arrive to the conclusion that each and every factor listed above from all the 4 ‘C’s have helped Portugal to reach its level of success not only in the time of Age of Discovery but also currently. However, we are still firm with the opinion that Commerce is the major cause and motive for Portugal’s success.

(The End)

Word count: 2010

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