Text| Records of the New Era
Edited | Xinsei Ji
preface
Madeira is a group of volcanic islands in the North Atlantic that were colonized by the Portuguese from 1420. Settlement and distribution of land rights on uninhabited islands were models replicated by the Portuguese crown in other colonial island groups and in Brazil.
Madeira is a convenient stopping point for ships traveling to and from the trade routes between Europe and the Americas. In addition, with their fertile volcanic soils, mild climate and abundant rainfall, the islands were exploited for agriculture, especially wheat, wine and sugar cane, and African slaves were exploited to the plantations of the latter.
Today, just like in the 15th century, Madeira is famous for its fortified wines named after the main island. The islands are today an autonomous community of Portugal.
Madeira landscape
Geography and climate
The volcanic Madeira archipelago is located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) off the coast of Africa beyond the Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago's four main islands are Madeira, Porto Santo, Desetas and Selvagens Rocky Island, but only the first two are now inhabited.
Madeira is the largest of the archipelago, measuring 55 km (34 mi) long and 22 km (13.5 mi) wide at its widest point. The name refers to the dense forest on the island.
Madeira, like the other islands in the archipelago, is actually a submerged mountaintop, so dominated by Ruyvo Peak, which rises 1,861 meters (6,106 feet) above the sea. The advantage of Port Santo for early Portuguese settlers was that the island was 42 square kilometres (16 square miles) in size, mostly flat terrain with few trees, ideal for agriculture, and multiple natural harbors.
A Portuguese sailor described Madeira as "a big garden".
found
The islands were well known to ancient Greek and Roman writers, they may have been visited by Vikings, and Islamic sailors certainly knew about them.
However, it wasn't until the early 15th century that the Portuguese or anyone else developed a keen interest in them. Two captains sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator (aka Infante Dom Henrique, 1394–1460), originally intended to attack the coast of Morocco, landed in the uninhabited archipelago of the Holy Port in a storm in 1418.
Accidental explorers quickly realized the potential of the place – a later sailor described it as "a big garden" (Cliff, 71) – and reported to Henry.
In 1419, the Portuguese royal family officially declared ownership of the island group, handing over the governorship to Prince Henry. The Portuguese military order, the Christian Order, headed by Henry, was granted exclusive rights there.
In support of the ownership claim, an expedition was launched to better explore the islands and find land suitable for farming, and Portugal was a grain importer at the time.
At this time, the Portuguese enjoyed free rule. Decades later, Portugal and Spain did quarrel over ownership of the Canary Islands, but the Treaty of Alcaçois-Toledo of 1479–80 made the Canary Islands Spanish possessions, while Portugal occupied Cape Verde, the Azores, and Madeira.
The treaty also had additional vague provisions that would cause trouble later, such as Portugal's rights for future discoveries in Africa and Spain's rights to islands outside the Canary Islands, interests that were eventually identified as the Caribbean and even the Americas.
Map of the location of Madeira Islands
sedimentation
As part of the feudal system, the Portuguese crown divided the islands and granted them "captains" (donatarias) to encourage the nobility to finance the development of the islands.
Nevertheless, the royal family retained full ownership, but granted lordship to Prince Henry and his heirs, who in turn distributed the property to their followers.
Each "captain" or Donatario was given the responsibility of settling and developing its area in exchange for financial and judicial privileges. The "captain" has his own large area of land in the territory under his jurisdiction, and he can allocate other lands (semarias) to those responsible for cleaning it up and starting farming within a specified period (initially ten years, later reduced to five years).
The first three such governors were knights of the Order of Christ, two of whom were none other than those who arrived in Port Santo two years earlier: Tristao Vaz Teixeira, who controlled the northern half of Madeira near Macchico, and João Gonsalves Zalco, who owned the area around Funchal, founded in 1421. The third captain was Bartolomeu Perestrelo, who ruled the Holy Port.
By the mid-15th century, local government agencies made up of elected officials began to manage rapidly growing populations. In 1508, Funchal officially received city status.
Many fishermen and peasants willingly left Portugal to start a new life on the island, which they hoped would be better than in Portugal, where the best farmland was under strict control by the nobility. For fishermen, the islands are a convenient base and are surrounded by great possibilities for deep-sea fishing.
Levada Aqueduct, Madeira
Alvise da Cadamosto, a Venetian merchant with a license to operate in Madeira, wrote valuable records about the islands (and Portugal's affairs on the African continent) at the time. The account was written around 1468, but describes the events of the 1450s and the early history of the island:
This island is called Madeira, meaning island of forests, because when it was first discovered by the people of Infante, there was not a single palm-wide land that was not covered by huge trees... Although it does not have any port, there is a good anchorage. The land is fertile and fertile, and although it is as mountainous as Sicily, it is always very fertile, producing 30,000 Venetian Stara [4.5 million liters] of wheat per year... The area is very prolific, with abundant water sources and beautiful springs, and there are six or eight small streams that flow through the whole island...
(Newwitt, 56)
Despite the description of the Garden of Eden, early settlers did sometimes have trouble. Alvise da Cadamosto pointed out that an out-of-control fire broke out in Madeira, forcing all the first settlers to return to their ships and wait two days at sea until the fire extinguished on its own.
At least the meat is easy to touch, because the wild peacocks, pigeons and quail on the island are not afraid of people and can be easily caught. European farm animals, rabbits, and even Portuguese flora have been introduced to the islands, wreaking havoc on local species, many of which have gone extinct.
Sugar cane and slavery
Over time, Madeira's agricultural capacity has been improved by cutting down more and more forests, building stone-walled terraces on hillsides, and building aqueduct systems (levadas). The island's hydraulic mills make planks from felled trees, which are shipped to Portugal and Spain.
Around 1455, wheat production declined and was replaced by sugar cane. With the financial support of Genoese bankers and the technical know-how of Sicilian consultants, this crop was first cultivated in Madeira.
There were also some Italian immigrants who came to the islands, as Lisbon at that time had important communities from the coastal countries of Italy. Alvise da Cadamosto describes the sugar cane industry:
... Infante grew sugar cane, which grew perfectly. A total of 400 cantara [5,500 liters] of different kinds of sugar were produced, which could be used for cooking or mixing, and as far as I know, they will soon be produced in large quantities, since this crop is suitable for warm and temperate climates... Many different kinds of sugar-coated compotes are well made, and wax honey is also produced in small quantities.
(Ibid., 57)
A glass of Madeira
As the 15th century passed, sugar began to be exported not only to Portugal, but also to other markets, such as merchants in Flanders and Constantinople. By the 16th century, exports were booming, and the problem was to find enough labor to plant the plantations.
Thus, slaves were imported from West Africa and sometimes brought by captains who sailed from Madeira. The number of slaves never exceeded the number of European settlers, unlike other Portuguese islands such as São Tomé.
In the second half of the 16th century, most of Madeira's sugar market was taken away by Brazil's larger, more modern plantations. Fortunately, the archipelago has another product that can bring more lasting prosperity to the archipelago.
Madeira wine
Early Portuguese settlers introduced vines from Crete to the island, and these vines were eventually planted in each valley that stretched down from the mountains of Madeira's interior. Alvise da Cadamosto gives a vivid description of the island's viticulture:
The new settlers planted vines and their wines were of excellent quality. They produce enough to meet their needs and allow some of them to be exported. Among these vines was the Malvasi grape from Candia (Crete), brought directly by the Prince from the Levant. The soil of this island is very fertile, the vines produce almost more grapes than leaves, and the bunches are large, with two slaps, I can almost say four slaps, long - this is the most beautiful thing in the world - and black lattice grapes, they have no kernel and grow perfectly.
Due to the volcanic soil and its unusual aging process, Madeira wines have a particularly strong caramel flavor.
Madeira wine was immediately popular with sailors sailing from Europe to the Americas, although it may not have begun to strengthen until around 1700. The island group was a common stopping point on long journeys who then helped spread the popularity of this wine in Western Europe and the New World.
Madeira is usually fortified by adding a certain amount of brandy or cane wine (about 10%) to the wine during fermentation, which usually has an alcohol content of 18 to 20% (compared to 13% or 14% strong regular wine).
Such a high alcohol content makes this wine perform well when sailing at sea, and another benefit is that it ages very well.
This is still the case with Madeira today, and bottles can be kept in cellars for a century or more. Madeira wines can be sweet or dry, depending on the added sugars and blend.
Madeira has a particularly strong caramel flavor thanks to the volcanic soil in which the vines grow and its unusual aging process, i.e. oak barrels are stored not in cool cellars, but in "baking rooms" or estufas for at least a few months.
This innovation is the result of sailors appreciating their wines better after the oak barrels passed through the tropics on their way to the Americas. In fact, many barrels of wine destined for England (then Madeira's main market) were often shipped to the Americas and back, as connoisseurs believed that this improved the flavor.
Portuguese colonial empire during the Age of Discovery
Later history
The boom in sugar cane and wine trade was accompanied by the production of sweet grapes (malvasia), barley and expensive dyes – red from the resin of dracaena (dracacea draco), known as sangue de dragão ('dragon's blood'), and blue from pastel or urzella.
Over time, the settlements on the island became more European in appearance. Madeira's elite became very wealthy, which was reflected in the island's magnificent architecture and imported luxuries such as Flemish paintings.
In the 16th century, as competition among European powers became more intense, Portugal had to fight to keep its possessions. Pirates and privateers also pose a significant threat. A fort was built on the island of Madeira in San Lorenzo.
This and other forts did not prevent Madeira from briefly coming under the control of the Spanish (1580-1640) and the British (1801-2 and 1807-14). From the last quarter of the 17th century, with the population of Madeira exceeding 50,000, the islands could no longer meet their food needs, and many moved further afield away from their ancestral homeland and started a new life in Portuguese Brazil or North America.
Today, the island group is an autonomous community of Portugal and remains a useful stopping point in the Atlantic, now a cruise ship rather than a slave ship and acts as a relay station for the Atlantic submarine cable system.
Resources
The Last Crusade
History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese in West Africa