Prince_Henry

Henry was born on March 4, 1394 died on November 13, 1460. He was the fourth son of, King John I of Portugal. His mother was Queen Philippa. But being born in royalty didn’t stop him from achieving his dream. After the expedition of Bartolomeu Dias, Portugal became the European country to establish trading outputs along the west coast of Africa. Eventually they proceeded to move east towards the Indian Ocean. Prince Henry was the nation’s most enthusiastic supporter. In 1419, his father appointed Prince Henry the governor of the province of Algarve which is on Portugal's southern coast. Also he had a dream to become and explorer himself which began the year 1415 when he helped conquer the Muslim city of Ceuta. Prince Henry led that expedition which led to the conquering of Ceuta, Portugal’s 1st ever conquest when he was just 21. That’s when he got his knight like urges. As known from before, the Europeans found spices that added flavor to Europe’s bland food. This caused them to want them. Some of the things he found when they invaded the Muslim city were stores filled with pepper, cinnamon, cloves and other spices. They also found large amounts of gold, silver, and jewel. Three years after he went to the aid of the town, when it was troubled by a Moorish army, and twice afterwards fought in Africa. This was just the beginning of what Prince Henry wanted. After returning home from the city of Ceuta he became determined to reach the source that the Muslims retrieved those treasures. And like most European explorers he wanted to spread the spirit of Christianity throughout the world. Prince Henry was also the founder of a navigation school around about 1418 that was located in the southern part of Portugal. It was the 1st school for oceanic navigation along with an astronomical observatory at Sagres, Portugal. In this school, people were trained in navigations, map-making, and science, in order to sail down the west of Africa. This school had everything thing that was essential to those who did, wanted, or who had explored. All kinds of people came there to perfect their trade from mapmakers, instrument maker, shipbuilders, scientists, to sea captains. Prince Henry did a lot for history just by founding this school. This institute's primary exploration goal was to explore the western coast of Africa to locate a route to Asia. A new type of ship, called a caravel was developed at Sagres. It was fast and was much more maneuverable than prior types of boats and though they were small, they were quite functional. Two of Christopher Columbus' ships, the Nina and the Piñata were caravels the Santa Maria was a carrack. Within the time period of 7 years Portugal ships started to sail down the west coast of Africa. Prince Henry was determined to see Portuguese sailors sail down the west coast of Africa to find the limits of the Muslim world in order to defeat the Muslims, and to find the legendary Christian empire of the priest-king Prester John who did not really exist. Caravels were discharged south along the western coast of Africa. But a serious problem that was along the African route was Cape Bojador. Southeast of the Canary Islands located in Western Sahara. European sailors were afraid of the cape, for supposedly to its south lay monsters and insurmountable evils. Although Prince Henry never sailed on any of his expeditions and rarely left Portugal, he became known as Prince Henry the Navigator. Prince Henry was important to history because he helped contributed to the more defined look and mobility of ships. He also create a place where people where able to enhance their skill in technique. Even though he didn’t travel he had a dream and he made it happen. That’s why he’s important he’s a visionary. He and many other helped to create a trade system that made it easier to get the things that we need, like medicines and the different spices we use in our food. He almost made it easier to travel. Just by allowing people to study. He has changed some many things in the world today, and anyone who contributes good or bad things (because we learn from our mistakes but we also learn from others) to history is very essential. RESOURCES USED: WEB, TEXTBOOK WEB Prince Henry the Navigator/Cape Bojador Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator TEXTBOOK Roger B. Beck, Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka Modern World History PATTERN OF INTERACTION