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Henry the Navigator, Prince of the Algarve and the great discoveries

Written on : 24 September 2019
By : Melchior Burin des Roziers
Henry the Navigator, Prince of the Algarve and the great discoveries

Dom Henrique (1394-1460), known as Henry the Navigator, an infantryman of Portugal and governor of the Algarve, is considered one of the founders of the era of great discoveries and the slave trade in the Atlantic. Being neither a sailor nor a navigator, the epithet attributed to him is only honorific. But the patron Henri launched many sailors on the seas and remains at the same time the leading figure of European colonial expansion.

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The journey of an erudite and ambitious prince

The journey of an erudite and ambitious prince

Born in Porto in 1394 and the third surviving son of the King of Portugal, Prince Henry received a good scientific education and took an early interest in mathematics and astronomical sciences.

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In 1415, he managed to convince his father to attack the Moors of Africa and take the city of Ceuta (Morocco). Indeed, for some time now, Moorish pirates have been harassing the Portuguese coasts from this port and attacking the inhabitants whom they sell in slave markets. In August of the following year, Ceuta was taken. Henri then discovered the goods coming from the trade routes of the Sahara, which aroused in the young prince a great desire for conquest in Africa, a continent of which the Portuguese knew almost nothing. A vocation was born: to spread Christianity among Muslim populations and to exploit Africa's resources for the benefit of the kingdom.

Henri settled on the peninsula of Sagres in the Algarve and repopulated the village of Terçanabal, which would soon be called Vila do Infante (City of the Infant). This corner, near Cap Saint-Vincent (considered at the time as the end of the world) and not far from Lagos, then became a high-tech base with its naval arsenal and observatory, as well as its school for the study of geography and navigation. Henri brought the best marine cartographers from Mallorca and made it a renowned place in Europe. Every year, the prince sends ships to the west coasts of Africa to learn more about the continent. 

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In 1419, it became official that Henri was appointed to be governor of the Algarve. 

A work that pays off: the great discoveries

A work that pays off: the great discoveries

Considering the appointment of governor in 1419, Henri did not lack the resources to undertake his expeditions. After sending his Portuguese crews to the seas, Prince Henry in return obtained great discoveries that were very promising for future colonies. After Porto Santo and Madeira, a multitude of territories are affected, including Cape Bojador, Cape Branco, Bay of Arguin, Cape Verde, Senegambia, the Azores, etc. 

Public opinion is definitively burying this old idea that the equatorial zone was uninhabitable. Henri contributed strongly to the prosperity of his country with all these established colonies.

The dark side of the slave trade

The dark side of the slave trade

While Prince Henry's immense contribution to Portuguese prosperity is widely revered, it should be noted that he is one of the founders of the Atlantic slave trade. For example, Nuno Tristão and Antão Gonçalves, sent to Africa with the sponsorship of Dom Henrique, captured many men from 1441 onwards. These men were deported to Portugal. Among these slaves, an African leader managed to negotiate his return by promising to provide other men in exchange. Commercial companies then became rich by exploiting this workforce to a large extent, in addition to all the wealth provided by the colonization of the land. 

Henry the Navigator, Prince of the Algarve and the great discoveries

But when Henry the Navigator died in Sagres in 1460, his great posterity was recorded for all eternity in the history of Portugal. So much so that many statues are built in his honour, including this magnificent 1960 statue erected in Lisbon to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death: Padrão dos Descobrimentos, who represents him at the head of a long line of sailors. National tributes went so far as to represent him on the 10,000 escudos notes in 1994. 

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