This phase was marked by the continuity of the
exploration of the African coast, but also by the marking of
position in the north of Africa. The responsibility of the
discoveries passes, in 1474, for the prince D. John.
The Portuguese reach the Gulf of Guinea and pass the line of
the equator. At military level, Arzila and Mazagão/El
Jadida are conquered and at commercial level there are
established the managements of Safim and São Jorge da Mina.
The Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo is signed in 1479, in
which Portugal it was abdicating of the interest of the
Canárias
islands, the south was keeping the exclusiveness of the
exploration of the lands, and Castela to north. This treaty was
the result of the Portuguese victory, in the naval Battle of
1479, against Castela. While destroying the Spanish fleet,
Portugal started to be the sea power of the Atlantic Ocean. D.
John innovated in the control of his Atlantic possessions,
arming the caravels with cannons and it was assuming a position
of extreme firmness, in which any vessel not Portuguese,
would be destroyed and its crew
dead!
-
Mare Clausum.
Afonso de Paiva and Pêro da Covilhã are sent, by
land, from Lisbon to meet the mythical Kingdom of
Ready John in Africa. They travel even to the orient and gather
informations on the commerce and the navigation in the Indian
ocean.
The great act of this phase, and one of the most
important of all the world-wide discoveries, was to passage of
the Cape of the Good Hope, for Bartolomeu Dias 1488. The
passage for India was found.
Chronology of events 2nd Phase of the period of Discoveries
1470 - Discovery of the
archipelago of Saint Tomé and Prince (EM), for the Portuguese
navigators John de Santarém and Pedro Escobar.(18)
2nd Fase - Exploration and occupation of the western coast of
Africa
Passage of the line of the
equator.
1471 - Conquest of
Arzila (1471-1550; 1577-1589). Restored to Morocco in 1589.(15)
1471 - Discovery of Ano Bom (Equatorial Guinea) -
His name was given it by the Portuguese navigators Pedro Escobar and
João de Santarém, when they discovered it in the day 1 ° of January of
1471.
1471 - When Island Pó (Equatorial Guinea) was discovered
it was a Portuguese possession between 1474 and 1778, when was given up
to Spain .
1472 - Travel
Danish-Portuguese to Greenland and Newfoundland (or Land of the Cods -
Canada); the expedition is led by two Dane
sailors, leave from Denmark and it takes two Portuguese navigators, John
Vaz Real Corte and Álvaro Martins Homem.(17)
1476 - The Portuguese navigator John Coelho visits some
islands of the West Indies (Carabien islands or another in the North American coast); it
seems that a sailor of name Cristopher Columbus was going on board of one
of his ships.
1482 - Arrival of the navigator Diogo Cão to the mouth of
river Zaire and exploration of this river even to the waterfalls
of Ielala to 150 kilometers of the mouth of river; in this travel there
is still explored part of the coast of Angola (EM).(19)
1482 - Foundation of
Saint Jorge da Mina - Portuguese Management in Ghana, Gulf of Guinea
constituted by a fortress and a village, been based on 1482 with the
intention of controlling and defending the commerce from the gold and
the navigation of the Portugueses in the western coast of Africa. It
corresponds to the current city of Elmina.(20)
1484: Diogo Cão explores the African coast again reaching
to zone of Walvis Bay, in the South of the Namíbia(EM).(21)
1485 - Conquest of Mazagão/El Jadida (1485-1550);
(1506-1769). Incorporation in Morocco in 1769.
(22)
1487 - Afonso of Paiva and Pero da Covilhã went, by land,
from Lisbon meet the Kingdom of Ready John (Ethiopia).
1488 - Construction of a management in Safim (Morocco)
(1488-1541).
1487/88: Bartolomeu
Dias, crowning 50 years of efforts and methodical expeditions,
doubles the end of the Good Hope (EM) reaching the Indian Ocean for the
South. There was found the famous Promontory Prasso of the geography of
Ptolomeu.(23)
- There was finished
the second phase of the Portuguese Discoveries. The world knew finally
the passage western African coast.
Discoveries
