Henry the Navigator - Father of the Age of Discovery - Research Paper

Itnroduction

Henry the Navigator was born in 1394 in Porto, Portugal. He engaged in exploration through its sponsorship even though he was neither a navigator nor a sailor, and most of the explorations along the West Coast of Africa are attributed to him (Davies 124). Portuguese crews were able to Portugal first colonies and paid visits to regions that were previously not known to Europe, and all these were under the patronage of Henry. He is always credited with inventing the Age of Discovery, which is a period during which the European nations spread to the Americas, Asia, and Africa (Davies 127). Henry is known as the originator of the Atlantic slave trade and the Age of Discovery.

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Henry, together with his father and elder brother in 1415, led an attack on Ceuta, which was a town along the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco. They were successful in the attack and, as a result, managed to place Ceuta under the control of Portuguese. His interest in Africa grew, and he became fascinated with the content which the Portuguese previously knew very little about. Upon realizing the Islamic faith in Africa, he gained interest in learning more about them, with the primary aim of conquering them and spreading Christianity to them to convert them. In the course, Prince Henry gained more incites on the many resources the African continent had and strategized himself to exploit such resources for the gain of Portugal. However, during his time, there was no proper way to access Africa due to the poor voyaging and lack of willingness by the Western sailor to sail to Africa due to the fear of the sea monsters, among other factors as the boiling waters. Portugal was making no attempts to improve on such setbacks, and Henry took it upon himself to improve the navigation sector.

After growing impatient with the progress of Portugal in exploring, Prince Henry opened a Navigation school in Sagres. The school was named Prince Henry School of Navigation, and it resulted in a breakthrough in the navigation industry in Portugal. In this school, sailors were educated on how to accurately read and draw maps, how to use tools of navigation like comas and astrolabe, and they were also taught how to sail the newly developed caravel. Before Prince Henry, sailors did not agree to sail to Africa due to the fear of boiling water near the equator and the sea monsters. According to Davies, perhaps, there is no record of any sailor who ever sailed into the Sea of Darkness, a region considered by the Portuguese to be any ocean part that is 27 degrees Cape Bojador (124). He sent fourteen voyages into the Sea of Darkness and even managed to convince some explorers to go further to the South. As a result of his patronages and efforts, it became the first step in the finding of the elusive, all water trade route from Portugal to India. During Henry's lifetime, the furthest point that was reached was probably present-day Sierra Leone. After the death of Henry, there was an acceleration in the pace of exploration, and this was an indication that his legacy and efforts have been exaggerated.

Henry spent most of his time at Sagres in his castle located in the far South of Senegal after the Alfarrobeira. The king accorded him the sole role and the right to send ships to the Guinea coast of Africa for visits and trade. Occasionally, he appeared at the Lisbon court and even assisted in the marriage of the king's sister in 1450 to the emperor Fredrick III. Henry's primary focus during his last decade was in the sponsorship of voyages (Davies 119). However, there were only minor discoveries by such voyages sponsored by him since by this time, and the prince was now shifting his focus to the exploitation of resources more so the African slaves. From 1452, Henry gained interest in the sugar of Madeira, which existed in the region he already established colony. Alvise Ca' da Mosto, who was a Venetian explorer, and Portuguese Diogo Gomes, were the last two crucial mariners sent by Henry, and they are the ones who between them discovered most of the Cape Verde Islands (Davies 121). Most of the enterprises by Prince Henry failed, even though Madeira colonization at least proved for a while that it was a brilliant idea. The Canary Islands, which was one of the unremitting obsessions of Henry, fell to Spain finally. As a result, Portugal failed in garnering much of the African gold trade until after more than twenty years from the time of the death of the prince. According to Norton, Henry always voiced his desire to convert the Islamic people of the Canary Islands, but he did not act to do so and merely talked with no action (44). There is also no genuine evidence that supports prince Henry's traditional reputation as a champion in conventional science development. He, however, did commission chronicles by means of Zurara that presented a heroic image of himself-a photograph that persevered into the twenty-first century. His lengthy-term importance consequently has been as a legendary figure of the early ranges of European exploration and discovery, as well as an exemplar of Portuguese nationalism.

The reputation of Prince Henry has lasted in Portugal up to the current day. The Portuguese government marked the fifth century of Henry's death in 1960, and the then nonetheless surviving foreign empire which Henry assisted in creating, with an outstanding convention in Lisbon and with a sequence of luxuriously produced publications of documents and maps recording the records of Portuguese growth (Norton 44). Ironically, most of the original files which might have thrown mild on Henry's role in that enlargement not exist, either via the loss of most of the records of his chancery or through the destruction through the fire of the Portuguese royal documents after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. There was, however, an already beginning reassessment of Prince Henry, and this time it was in the English-speaking world. In 1961, this was followed by the book by Peter Russel titled Canning House lecture of 1960, Prince Henry the Navigator (Koelsch 149). There was also a South African scholar by the name Professor E. Axelson, who in 1983 published 'Henry the Navigator: The Rise and Fall of a Culture Hero.' The work affected, showing that the school of navigation that was at the residence of prince henry overlooking the Atlantic at Sagres, was not created by Prince Henry. It also stressed that the school was not the only essential contribution to the exploration of the West African coast by the Portuguese and that a visionary scheme was not devised by Prince Henry for the opening of a direct sea route to India from Europe.

The prince, in some ways, emerged to be elusive due to the lack of personal documentation, but clearly, he was a man of his time. As described by Zurara, Henry was a crusader and a man of piety who made attempts to act out the ideals of loyalty on Africa's battlefields but was at the same time a self-justifying and ruthless opportunist who has a powerful desire for personal glory and benefit (Koelsch 146). As a result of his attempt to repeat the 1415 military triumph of Ceuta, Tangier experienced a disaster in 1437, which concurrently led to the capture and finally death of his younger brother Fernando in prison (Norton 44). Somehow, it was appropriate that Prince Henry was also the brother-in-law to the duke of Burgundy, Charles the rash.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Henry the Navigator was a significant figure not only in the history of Portugal but to entire England and the world. His contributions to the field of navigation are crucial and cannot be ignored at any cost. He was the mastermind behind the Portuguese invasion of West Africa's coasts. Although he did not directly act in such practices, his contributions were vital through support such as the establishment of the Navigation school, where the sailors who made it to Africa gained their skills. Besides, he also funded the processes of navigation and was the inventor of the Atlantic slave trade, which according to critiques, he did for his gain. He helped Portugal to discover several places and islands in Africa and also engaged in the gold trade and creation of empires in Africa.

Works Cited

Davies, Arthur. "Prince Henry the navigator." Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) 35 (1964): 119-127. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/621104

Koelsch, William A. "Prince Henry'the Navigator': A Life by Peter Russell." Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 63.1 (2001): 145-151. Retrieved from www.researchgate.net/publication/240582691_Prince_Henry_'the_Navigator'_A_Life_By_Peter_Russell

Norton, Louis Arthur. "The Legacy of Prince Henry." Mercator's World 6.3 (2001): 44-44. Retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA74571930&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=10866728&p=AONE&sw=w