Almost a millenium later, the failure of portuguese people to defend national independence, accepting to be formally absorbed by the EU, one of the heads of the beast, another end times sign in society.
Looking at a map of 1419, the date of the discovery of the island of Madeira, the day marking the begin of the Golden Age of Discoveries, there is only one nation with the current borders. (1) The same nation that gave birth to the captains of the vessels that first reached the coasts of all the previously unknown Atlantic and Indian Ocean islands (all previoulsy uninhabited); the previoulsy unknown coasts of Africa and South America; and last but not the least, at the end of the Golden Age, almost half of the world's previoulsy unknown meridians, i.e. the Pacific Ocean between South America and the Philippines (2). Actually captains beyond what is taught today as History (3).
The symbol of the Golden Age, ever since day 1 until the end, was the red Cross of Christ, which only portuguese vessels carried on their sails, the symbol of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator.
During the Golden Age, the first thing the portugueseas did as they landed on unknown coasts, was to plant the Cross. The goal was not to turn the natives into slaves (4). The goal was securing the spices trade and spreading the message of Christ.
Notes
(1) In 1419, those borders had already prevailed for a long time. The borders between Portugal and what is today Spain, defined in 1143, the first day of Portugal as an independent nation, were until now the oldest national borders in the world.
(2) Major exceptions were Magellan in 1521, who was portuguese but sailing for the spanish empire, in the first human voyage around the world. That was also the case of portuguese Cabrillo in 1578, the first non-american to reach the Pacific Coast of the US.
(3) Columbus, who rewritten History describes as Genovese, who before beginning (apparently) to work for the spanish empire was living in the island of Porto Santo, Madeira.. He was in fact a portuguese of jewish descent, born in the town of Cuba, Alentejo.
(4) Slavery begun only after the end of the Golden Age of Discoveries, the day Magellan died, days after becoming the first man to have sailed all the world's meridians.
1 comment:
Some errors on your footnote:
(1) In 1143 Portugal got its independence from Castilla and Lyon, not Spain, actually there will not be a "Spain" until the XV Century.
The use of "Espanha" as the name of that country is even abusive, since "Espanha" is the same as the latin term "Hispania", that comes to be the name the Romans give to the Iberian Peninsula.
Back on topic, the current Portuguese borders are established on 1238 with the conquest of Algarve.
But there's yet another note, back on XIII Century there were no "rigorous borders", the fortified cities have owner, but the fields around had borders "more or less there". The idea of mark borders came with Napoleon.
The only change on Continental Portugal since 1238 was Olivença, a city the Spanish take advantage after the Franco-Iberian wars; these wars came after the defeat of Napoleon's army at Portugal when the Portuguese allied with the Spain to get them rid of the Peninsula. After such a long period of war with France, a war where the Spanish most of the time were ally with the French, Portugal had not much strength left to go fight with Spain for that city.
(4) The first slave market on Christian Europe was at Silves, it was part of the surrender agreement of Algarve. Unlike Christianity, which is oppose to slavery, Islam is pro-slavery.
That market was closed a shot after because the king found such practice "incompatible with Christianity".
Slavery from the colonies come almost by accident. After reaching the Zaire river the Portuguese are requested to help the Congolese Emperor against a rebellion of the Queen of the 'Ngolas, as reward the portuguese receive a place for set up a city-market, which comes to be the bay of Luanda, where they set up "New Lisbon", today Luanda, and some prisoners of that war as slaves.
Those slaves are carried to Portugal, but still the king and the Vatican are opposing the practice and they're sent to populate some islands, like Cape Verde and Madeira.
Up to XVI Century Portugal has no colonies, all the portuguese build are shore markets to deal with the natives all along the coasts of Africa and Asia. Brazil became the first Portuguese colony and make a twist on slavery policies. With such a big place to populate, slavery become accepted, even the Vatican agrees with slavery for 3 years (the bula was revoked shortly).
The slaves origin is however far from what most people think, the portuguese still had no colonies at Africa (they just build them after the arrival of the English, French, Belgians and Dutch there because those yes, had territorial expansion on mind), so they buy slaves from Muslims on Mozambique shores. Here's where came the term "kafir" to refer a slave. The portuguese start to use it because when they question the Muslims why was that man a slave, most likely the reply was "because he is a kafir". The similarity between this word and "Café" or "Coffee" quickly make people believe it was related to their tone of skin, however "kafir" in Arabic means "Infidel" and that was the reason for Muslims to enslave them, as prescribed on Quran and as they keep doing these days on places like Darfur.
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