On March 9, 1500, under the command of the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral (1467-1520), an expeditionary fleet of 13 ships and about 1500 men set out from Lisbon, Portugal, and for the people of that era, such an expeditionary fleet was unprecedented in size, and the number of expeditions even accounted for one-thousandth of the total population of Portugal at that time, and the Portuguese were determined to go far away. At the other end of the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, from there to rich India, this expedition, historically known as Portugal's "Second (Expedition) Portuguese Secound India Armada" (Portugese Secound India Armada). Although Cabral had limited sailing experience, many of the fleet's captains were portuguese navigators of all kinds, and in 1488 he led an expedition to the southernmost point of Africa, the "Cape of Storms", which the Portuguese king later renamed the "Cape of Good Hope", symbolizing the cape of hope that entered the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean and opened up the eastern route.
Coat of arms of the Cabral family Cabral_family_coat_of_arms
At the suggestion of da Gama, Cabral's fleet moved away from the southwest coast of Africa, in an arc to the southwest. This da Gama was the first European in history to sail from Portugal to India. Ten years after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by Díaz, in 1497 the Portuguese royal family sent the first expeditionary fleet to India, which consisted of four ships led by Da Gama, of which "San Gabriel" and "San Rafael", were built with the help of Dias's sailing experience, and da Gama returned to Portugal from India in September 1499, he broke through the Long-awaited Expansion of the Eastern Route of the Portuguese Kingdom for more than eighty years and became a hero of the Portuguese.
However, it is not known whether the expedition had been "deliberately planned" for a long time, or whether it was really due to weather accidents, the arc of cabral's expedition route was a little too big, so that they "bumped" into the uplift in the northeast of the South American continent, Brazil, which was discovered by the Europeans in an unexpected form. For the Portuguese, it was a Stone Age continent, and the cannibal tribes were not legendary. The only thing Cabral can measure and determine is that this site, east of the "Toddhilas Meridian", belongs to the "Portuguese territory", in order to hold the ceremony of Portuguese ownership of this place, the huge wooden cross was erected, Cabral also named the place "Ilha de Vera Cruz", that is, the "Island of True Crosses". Later studies believe that on the "Candino World Map", the small stretch of coastline along the Brazilian coast from "Vera cruz" to "baia de todos os santos" with the small Portuguese flag should be a small stretch of Brazilian coastline that Cabral fleet arrived and explored in the same year, and further north, the outline of the Brazilian coastline between "Rio de sã franc" and "Golfo fremosso" should be attributed to another explorer, João da Nova) – Commander-in-chief of the third Portuguese Indian expedition, who returned to Lisbon in September 1502, although this map already shows the geographical information he has recently brought back.
The Portuguese navigation in the Atlantic Ocean, the further south you return, the farther away from the coast you have to go. Green is the wind direction, blue is the flow direction, and red is the route
After sending one of the supply ships in the fleet back to Lisbon to report the news, Cabral's fleet continued its voyage to India on 2 May 1500. On 24 May 1500, the fleet encountered a fierce storm as it passed near the Cape of Good Hope, destroying 4 ships and killing all of their men, including Dias. The good navigator who had crossed the most difficult Atlantic section of the Indian route, explored and discovered the Cape of Good Hope, never reached the real India.
Statue of Dias in front of the Commonwealth High Commission of South Africa in London
On 13 September 1500, after nearly six months of leaving Portugal, Cabral's fleet finally arrived in Calicut, southwestern India, where the Portuguese offered gifts and respect, obtained permission from the local rulers, established trading posts and warehouses, and in order to further strengthen relations between the two sides, Cabral even sent his own fleet members to join several local military conflicts at the request of the commander. However, the beautiful "life is only as it first appeared" lasted only three months, and the Portuguese trading post was suddenly besieged by hundreds of locals and Muslim Arabs who felt threatened by Portuguese commerce, more than fifty Portuguese were killed, and the rest fled back to their gunboats. The angry Portuguese plundered more than a dozen Arab merchant ships moored in the port of Calicut, took revenge on more than 600 crew members and merchants, and shelled the city of Calicut. Seeing that the spice trade with the Calicuttes could not continue, the Cabral fleet continued south to another Indian city-state: Kochi, a vassal state of Calicut but always eager to become independent from its rule, and the Portuguese took full advantage of these fissures between the Indian city-states, just as the British Empire did when it conquered the Indian Mughal Empire three hundred years later, taking advantage of the rifts and conflicts between the Indian city-states to achieve the effect of "sandpipers competing for fish to gain". This strategy ensured that the Portuguese gradually established hegemony in the region, and the monopoly of the spice business was also a natural gain.
Cabral 1500 Expedition Route The red line is the outbound journey And the blue line is the return journey
On 16 January 1501, Cabral's fleet set out from Cochin and returned to Portugal, leaving only 5 of the 13 ships at the time of departure, and before reaching the Cape of Good Hope, one was sent to Sofala to complete another expedition to the fleet, the second speedboat piloted by Captain Nicola was sent to the front station to report the "news of victory" to the king, and the third ship piloted by Captain Pedro lost contact with the fleet when he left Mozambique (it was an era when communication was basically roared), and finally, When the fleet bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Atlantic Ocean on 22 May, only two ships remained to continue north along the west coast of Africa. On 2 June, the fleet entered the Portuguese port of Beseguiche (present-day Port Dakar, Senegal) near Cape Verde in West Africa, where the Portuguese base camp was already in sight. Here, Cabral not only caught up with Captain Nicola, whom he had sent out to report, but also found another small Fleet of Portuguese at anchorage, and it turned out that after Cabral accidentally discovered Brazil on his voyage to India and sent a ship back to report it, King Manuel I of Portugal sent a small expedition to investigate, and one of the navigators was Amerigo Vespusi, the one we described in the "Ten Million Dollar Birth Certificate". After him, he named the Americas Americas Amerigo. Cabral was in port expecting his fallen ships to converge, during which time Amerigo told Cabral that the land you discovered "last year" and named the "Island of the True Cross" was not an island at all! It's a brand new continent!
Cabral's thirteen ships of expeditionary fleet suffered heavy losses during the voyage
Cabral and his fleet finally returned to Lisbon, Portugal on July 21, 1501: 13 ships on departure, 2 empty ships, 6 dead sand, and 5 laden with expensive goods such as spices, gold and silver, more than 1,500 expeditions were also lost in half during this long extreme sport. But even so, the cargo brought back by the fleet brought more than 800% of the profits to the Portuguese king.
Coins commemorating the 500th anniversary of Cabral's birth in Portugal in 1968, the other side is the "Five Cakes" coat of arms of the Kingdom of Portugal
The Portuguese map of the "classified level" purchased by Candino for 12 gold coins contains strategic level information of the era, which the Portuguese exchanged for countless money, time, and the lives of explorers. Over the decades, the Portuguese who ushered in the age of geographical discovery have explored bits and pieces of exploration, which are truly reflected in this map of Cantino.
In addition to the rich geographical information of Brazil, Africa, the West Indies, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and other regions described above, the "Candino World Map" also reflects some other valuable information of that era, such as: the Greenland text description part in the upper left part of the map, to the effect that this land was discovered and mapped for Portugal by Gaspar Corte-Real of Portugal, and also belonged to King Manuel I of Portugal; Newfoundland on the left side of Greenland. Depicting large areas of stout woods, Gaspar and his brother Miguel (a member of the Portuguese royal family) also arrived here during expeditions between 1500 and 1501, and on the map of Cantino, also planted the flag of the Kingdom of Portugal, the red font "Terra del Rey de Portuguall" means "land of the Portuguese"; this map is also of historical importance to the depiction of the east coast of the United States and the Florida Peninsula, in a corner of the upper left corner of the map, Depicting the coasts on the east and west sides of the Florida Peninsula, it predates the Spanish explorer Ponce de León, who became famous for discovering the Florida Peninsula in 1513. On the west side of the Papal Dividing Line, whether the Spaniards knew they were arriving in fabled Asia or a New World, the flag of the Kingdom of Spain was planted on the islands of today's Caribbean Sea.
Parts of the Florida Peninsula, the Caribbean, and Cuba on the cantino map are marked with the Spanish Catholic Double Kings flag, and the red line below is the Tropic of Cancer
In the field of natural sciences, the "Candino World Map" is the earliest extant "latitude chart", which was introduced into the production of nautical charts in the second half of the fifteenth century with the development of astronomical and nautical science. Prior to this, the "Portolan Charts*", popular in the Mediterranean region, were based primarily on a constant-line grid based on the angles and distances of the Earth's magnetic field lines between the two places. The main tool for applying such nautical charts is a modified compass that travels from China to Europe, along with the scale of the distance indicated on the chart. The typical feature of the latitude chart is that the geographical location is expressed in latitude, and its core tool needs to be able to determine the latitude height of the stars in the universe. The Potolam chart pattern is still used in the Candino map in Europe and the Mediterranean region, because these areas are already familiar "small areas", but in the wider, trans-oceanic Brazil, India, African coast, etc., the map has introduced the concept of latitude. The most obvious manifestation on this map is the clear mapping of latitude reference lines for the equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Cancer, Arctic Circle, etc. In English, the Tropic of Cancer is the Tropic of Capricorn, "Capricorn" is the Tenth House of the Zodiac Capricorn, the Tropic of Cancer is the Tropic of Cancer, "Cancer" is the fourth house of the Zodiac, cancer, their names all originate from the ancient astrology more than 2,000 years ago, every summer solstice, when the sun shines directly to about 23 ° 26 ' north latitude, the sun is in the position of the zodiac Cancer Palace; the winter solstice day every year, When the sun shines directly to about 23° 26′ south latitude, the sun is in the Capricorn Palace. The latitude position of the Tropic of Cancer reflects the value of the yellow-red intersection angle. The observation and reflection on the never-ending motion of the universe slowly awakened human cognition of time and space, and mapped it to the exploration of the blue planet.
In the late 13th century, the "Pisa Nautical Chart" on parchment is believed to be the oldest known "Portolan Chart"
*The word "Portolan" should be derived from the Italian word "Portulano", meaning "related to a port or terminal". The "Carta Pisana" on parchment is considered to be the oldest known "Portolam Chart", which was probably drawn in the late thirteenth century, named after its discovery near Pisa, Italy, which mainly focuses on the Mediterranean Sea, but also includes the surrounding Black Sea, Adriatic Sea and other areas, and the Potoland Chart is the rise and main application of the Mediterranean region. The most important feature of the Potolam chart is the system of constant-line grids radiating from the compass rose and spreading throughout the map, and there are no latitude and longitude coordinates. Since they are not based on some scientific calculation of the projection, the error of such charts in the voyage of unfamiliar oceans is often difficult to accept. About the Potolam chart, we will introduce it in detail in the future public account.
The 32 constant lines and scale markers radiated by the compass rose remind us that this is still a Map of the Potoland Sea
In the Cantino map, its system of constant lines is constructed using a bicircular approach, with the western ring centered near the Cape Verde Islands and the eastern ring centered on the Indian continent. Each circumference is marked with 16 equidistant points, radiating from the two central points the classic Potoland chart-style constant lines at angles of 0°, 11 1/4°, 22 1/2°, 33 3/4°, etc. The tangent point of the two large circles in the east and west is in the middle of the African continent, where a large, gorgeous compass rose direction marker is depicted, with a protruding pointer pointing north. This dense constant-line grid can be used to read and record the angle of routes between different locations, thus completing the navigation function. Scales are also plotted at six different locations, in Portuguese rigs, to measure distances between different locations.
In the Cantino map, the system of constant lines was constructed using a bicircle approach
Now, let's go back to the "Papal Meridian" at the beginning of this informative map!
In 1513, the Portuguese magelion (Fernão de Magalhães, 1480-1521), who had served in many parts of Asia, returned to his hometown of Lisbon and applied to King Manuel I of Portugal to fund a round-the-world expedition. But more than two years ago, the Portuguese had taken control of the Strait of Malacca, which bridged the Pacific ocean to the Indian Ocean, and then established a spice trading base in the Banda Islands in northeastern Indonesia, and a year earlier had further seized the nearby Maluku Islands, and the spice trade in the East was now under Portuguese control, and the Portuguese king had no interest in rejecting Magellan's request.
The Spice Islands, represented by the Maluku Islands
Coincidentally, many years ago, also in the royal palace of Portugal, Manuel I's predecessor, João II, also refused the expedition request of the Genoese Columbus, who eventually discovered the New World with the patronage of the Spanish royal family, and the Spanish flourishing westward route became a permanent confidant of the Portuguese at that time.
In 1518, the Portuguese Magellan made a request to the King of Spain to fund the round-the-world voyage, and on September 20, 1519, under the instructions of the King of Spain, an expedition of five ships with the Trinidad as its flagship officially began its exploration journey, which would be the first circumnavigation of the world in human history! The Portuguese did not expect that the Portuguese explorer, representing the Spaniards, would continue his exploration west of the Papal Meridian, all the way west, bypassing the Strait of Magellan, the southernmost point of South America, across the widest Pacific Ocean on the planet, and then, one day in November 1521, somewhere in the Spice Islands of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the Portuguese on the same road to the east met the Portuguese head-on!
Magellan, who completed his voyage around the world with the financial support of the Kingdom of Spain, still stands in the group of statues of the "Monument to Discovery" in Lisbon, Portugal, on which many people standing in front of him and behind him are the famous pioneer explorers of Portugal who appear in our article: Prince Enrique, vasco da Gama, Cabral, Gaspar, Dias...
In 1523, Portugal and Spain began to sit at the negotiating table again, continuing negotiations to divide the world, and the long negotiations were accompanied by incessant armed clashes, until 1529, when the two sides reached the Treaty of Saragossa: Spain and Portugal defined the meridian near the 142° east longitude line as the dividing line of power between the two sides in the eastern hemisphere. Spain withdrew eastward from the Spice Islands, represented by the Maluku Islands, for which Portugal compensated Spain with 350,000 gold coins. However, the Philippines, west of the treaty dividing line, continued to be ruled by Spain, and the Portuguese did not fight too much because they believed that there were not many spices there.
Spain and Portugal have "drawn" three meridians in the north-south direction for the sake of clear spheres of influence on the earth
After the "Papal Meridian" and the "Toddhilas Meridian", a third "Zaragoza Meridian" dividing the world was created between Portugal and Spain, which gave birth to great navigation and geographical discoveries. However, neither of the Iberians could have predicted that in the coming of the next century, the vast majority of merchant ships attached to the Spice Islands would fly the tricolor flag of the bourgeois republic, the Dutch United Provinces Republic, which had become independent from the Spanish feudal kingdom.
Glory Fleet / Orange Lake Studio works