Personal Life

  • Born on March 4, 1394 in Porto, Portugal
  • Born into the royal family, son of the King and Queen of Portugal
  • Began serving in the Portuguese army in 1415
    • His first conquest was the capture of the Moroccan city of Ceuta
    • Though there was difficulty, the mission was a success
    • Because of this, he was appointed the governor of Ceuta by his father, the King of Portugal
    • He entertained the idea of taking over Castilians in Spain
      • If he had actually done this, this would have upset relations between the two peoples and possibly even sparked war

Contribution to Exploration and Navigation

  • He himself never actually went on any voyages, but he was a patron of navigators, explorers, and map makers
  • Around 1418, Henry sought out what the coast of Portugal offered
  • He began sponsoring expeditions, some of which rediscovered islands
    • Some of the islands were Madeira, Porto Santo, and Cape Verde
    • Portuguese merchants established trading posts at Sāo Jorge de Mina (modern Ghana)
      • There they traded horses, leather, textiles, and metalwares for gold and slaves
  • One year later, Henry's father made him governor of the southern coasts of Portugal
  • From here on out, he sent innumerable expeditions down the western coast of Africa
  • He had several goals for his expeditions:
    • his main focus with expeditions was trade
    • learn about Muslim power
    • take over Muslim trade routes
    • make alliances against Muslims with Christian rulers
    • establish Portuguese colonies
    • enter the gold trade
    • convert people to Christianity
  • Made a court specially for those who centered in travel and trade such as fishermen, cartographers (people who make maps), and shipbuilders
  • He acquired a large sum of money which he used to fund his expeditions when he became a grand master of the Order of Christ. This was the pope's supreme order
  • Progress did not come easily, and when it did, it was slow
    • due to technological setbacks and ignorance of his men (they believed that there were monsters at certain locations in the ocean)
  • In 1450, he made a naval observatory to teach navigation, astronomy, and cartography

  • Most of his early expeditions were to search the Moroccan coast
    • This led to his sailors travelling further and further down Africa
    • Led to his want to discover a route to India that travelled south and around Africa
      • 1434- his men rounded Cape Bojador, later moving past Rio de Oro (River of Gold) to the Azores, where they began colonization
  • In 1433, Henry’s brother Duarte became the King of Portugal, who died later the next year, leaving his son with the throne
  • He made his expeditions self-supporting by trading gold and slaves along the African coast
  • He established the first European trading post overseas on Arguin Island in 1448
  • Despite his partaking in trade, he had yet to pay off a lot of his debt before his death on November 13, 1460 in Vila do Infante
Picture
Cape Bojador

Exploration and Religion

  • He used his expeditions to spread Christianity
  • He showed others this by a red cross on the sails of his ships, a symbol of his affiliation with the papacy
  • One major method of conversion was slavery
    • This became relevant once Pope Nicholas V issued a papal bull that allowed the enslavement of pagans and infidels (people not the same religion as you)
    • Portuguese sailors began trading slaves up and down the west coast of Africa

Comparison

Henry the Navigator
  • Originally from Portugal
  • Sponsored expeditions to discover a new overseas trade route to India around the southern tip of Africa
  • Devoted to exploring the west African coast
  • Deeply embedded himself in trade
  • Established Portuguese colonies along the west African coast
Christopher Columbus
  • Originally from Portugal
  • Went on an expedition to discover a new overseas trade route to Asia
  • Devoted his life to exploring the Americas
  • Engaged in trade often, sparked the Columbian Exchange
  • The land he explored was eventually colonized

College Board Themes

Theme 1: Interaction Between Humans and the Environment
• Demography and disease
• Migration
• Patterns of settlement
• Technology
This College Board Theme fits my objective because what Henry the Navigator spent most of his life doing was exploring, moving to new territories that were formerly unknown to the Portuguese


Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures
• Religions
• Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
• Science and technology
• The arts and architecture
This College Board Theme fits my objective because one of Henry's goals of his expeditions was to facilitate the spread of Christianity, and another goal was to hinder the Muslims in trade and ally against them. Technology involved was navigation and cartography.


Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems
• Agricultural and pastoral production
• Trade and commerce
• Labor systems
• Industrialization
• Capitalism and socialism
This College Board Theme fits my objective because Henry supported himself and his expeditions with trade along the African coast. He was eager to engage in trade with the Africans, especially the gold trade.

Bibliography

"Henry the Navigator." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014