Prince Henry the Navigator

The Henry the Navigator was not a sea captain, but a Portuguese prince who launched Europe’s Age of Exploration. The voyages he sponsored opened the way to centuries of European colonial control over much of Africa. His campaign helped make possible Vasco da Gama’s 1498 voyage to India, thirty-eight years after Henry’s death.

Portugal and the Sea

Portugal was a small kingdom at the western edge of Europe, and its fishermen and merchants looked to the sea for their living. Portuguese ships carried salt, wine, olive oil, and other goods to ports in England and northern Europe. Portugal was also a Catholic kingdom whose kings had driven Muslim rulers from their land.

Henry the Soldier

Henry first entered Africa as a soldier. In 1415, at age twenty-one, he joined his father and brothers in attacking Ceuta, a fortified port ruled by Muslims on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Ceuta received gold and other goods carried north by caravans across the Sahara. Portugal captured the city, but the caravan trade soon shifted to other ports.

Gold, Spices, and India

Ceuta did not make Portugal rich, but it showed Henry the wealth flowing out of Africa. He was determined to reach the source of that gold by sea. Henry also set his sights on India, where merchants bought spices, silk, and other valuable goods. Those goods reached Europe only after passing through many hands on long land and sea routes, making them scarce and expensive. Henry envisioned Portuguese ships sailing around Africa and trading with India directly.

A Wealthy Sponsor

In 1420, Henry became head of the Order of Christ, a Catholic order of knights. The Order was wealthy because it owned vast lands and collected income from them. Its money paid for many of Henry’s voyages, and its red cross marked the sails of his ships.

Unlocking the Secrets of the Ocean

With the Order’s wealth behind him, Henry gathered a circle of mapmakers, shipbuilders, pilots, and sailors to study ocean travel. They discussed how winds and currents moved ships, how to navigate by the stars, and how to make maps more accurate.

The Expeditions

Henry then sent a series of expeditions down Africa’s Atlantic coast. One obstacle was Cape Bojador, a rocky headland on Africa’s northwest coast. Few European sailors had traveled beyond it, and frightening stories warned that the ocean near the equator was so hot that it boiled. In 1434, one of Henry’s captains sailed past the cape and came home safely. Each voyage added new knowledge. Sailors returned with reports of unfamiliar coasts, winds, and ports, and mapmakers used that information to improve the next expedition.

The Human Cost

Beginning in the 1440s, ships Henry sponsored captured and purchased Africans, then carried them to Portugal as enslaved people. He received a share of the profits. This early traffic was far smaller than the Atlantic slave trade that developed later, but it began Portugal’s trade in enslaved Africans by sea.

Henry’s Legacy

By Henry’s death in 1460, Portuguese sailors had reached the coast of what is now Sierra Leone, thousands of miles south of Portugal. They had also discovered Madeira, the Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands. Henry’s expeditions had proved that the Atlantic could be explored and that Africa’s coast stretched far beyond what Europeans had known.