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podcast transcript
For thousands of years, most civilizations that arose along the Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts of Europe settled along the coast.
They rarely sailed into the Atlantic, nor did they sail far along the African coast, as parts of the coastline were considered impassable.
That was until an unknown Portuguese sailor in the 15th century discovered a solution that would change human history and usher in the Age of Exploration.
Learn more about Gil Eanes, the man who conquered the ends of the world, in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Before the 15th century, Europeans rarely sailed much beyond their own coasts. Over the millennia, various seafaring civilizations arose, but they rarely ventured beyond the Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts.
A very vibrant seafaring culture developed, but it was very different from that of the early voyagers who set out from the Indian Ocean or Asia to the Pacific.
There were several reasons for this. In the Mediterranean, ships had sails but often used oars to move regardless of the wind.
The sails throughout Europe were square, which was fine when the wind was at your back, but did not beat the wind like the triangular Latin sails that had become popular in the Arab world.
The Portuguese sailors who will be the main characters of this episode were still using old-fashioned ships called barcas, equipped with Viking-style square sails. Barcas were slow, heavy, single-masted ships with little maneuverability.
In the early 15th century, European maps did not extend beyond the Mediterranean Sea. They were very inaccurate and largely incomplete.
Fifteenth-century Europeans were very ignorant of the Atlantic Ocean and accepted the medieval idea that it was the Mare Tenebrosum, or Sea of Darkness. Maps of the period reflected this danger, depicting areas beyond the known world as empty wastelands and warning anyone who dared pass through them.
Sailors believed in the legend that there was an abyss beyond certain geographical points, such as Cape Bojador on the coast of North West Africa. A common fear among sailors was that if they sailed beyond this point, the sea would boil over and thick fog would block navigation.
famous Catalonia AtlasAn important resource for early Portuguese sailors, they stopped drawing the Atlantic altogether once it reached the coast of North West Africa.
Some maps such as bronze casting Borgia Map The early 15th century account is not only inaccurate; They were menacing, filling the outer edges of the map’s oceans with terrifying razor-toothed creatures straight out of mythology, issuing explicit warnings to anyone who dared sail beyond the edges of the map.
The Borgia map offers the following warning to sailors who want to test these boundaries: “There are some big guys here. Some snakes have four-foot horns and are even big enough to eat snakes. The whole bull.“
To be fair, there is a reason why the west coast of Africa is less well-known than the east coast. The west coast is mostly desert, with no major population centers until it reaches the Gambia River, and no major natural ports.
The scope of Portugal’s Atlantic exploration was limited to three islands off the Atlantic coast of modern Morocco: the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores.
Two of these, Madeira and Azores, became important Portuguese possessions. Portugal settled this archipelago as follows: Donataria The system is one in which the Crown divides authority into patrimonial estates.
The Portuguese Crown awarded Capitania to brave and loyal knights who extracted wealth from this territory on its behalf.
As Portugal’s imperial ambitions grew, it also turned its attention to the Canary Islands. Unfortunately, they were not alone. This is because neighboring Castile, which would become the core of the Kingdom of Spain, also coveted the archipelago.
Portugal’s maritime ambitions were driven entirely by geographical limitations. They were a small territory on the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula, surrounded by their larger neighbors to the east.
For a nation-state to prosper in an expanding Europe, Portugal had to become a powerful seafaring nation beyond the unknown borders of Africa.
Canary was the first test of this principle. Spain and Portugal fought a long war over control of the Canary Islands. Both kingdoms viewed the Canary Islands not only as a land rich in treasure, but also as an important strategic location.
Located just off the coast of North West Africa, these islands were an absolute necessity for any country wishing to expand into Africa.
The conquest of the Canaries was the lifelong ambition of the famous Portuguese explorer and navigator Prince Henry, son of King John I of Portugal. More than just a sailor, Prince Henry used his wealth and status to personally bring to his court cartographers, scholars, shipbuilders, and astronomers from across the Mediterranean and Arab world.
Prince Henry was surrounded by ambitious sailors who dreamed of making great fortunes through the awards of spoils under the Donataria system.
But the Canary Islands were not Prince Henry’s final goal. They were merely stepping stones to greater ambitions, as his interests were focused on what lay beyond the Canaries.
The biggest obstacle to achieving this was Cape Bojador, located just south of Morocco, one of the locations on the edge of existing maps at the time. The rounding of Cape Bojador doesn’t seem like a big deal now and doesn’t receive much attention, but it was a big problem at the time.
The coast of Cape Bojador offers some of the most treacherous sailing conditions in the world.
The shallow reef created incredibly turbulent seas, and the constant pounding created white, frothy foam that made the sea look as if it was boiling.
To make matters worse, the hot, dry heat of the Sahara Desert collided directly with the cold, moist Atlantic ocean currents, creating thick fog.
There was another big problem. The prevailing winds along the northwest coast of Africa blow from north to south. This made sailing the African coast really easy, but sailing home extremely difficult.
This may have been the biggest problem. For even if the other problems of sailing to Cape Bojador were solved, the problem of sailing home still remained.
For 12 years Prince Henry sponsored expeditions around the Cape.
Finally, in 1433, Prince Henry dispatched his courtier Gil Eanes to sail past the Cape. Eanes and his crew failed on their first attempt and returned to Prince Henry with only stories of boiling water and impenetrable fog.
Prince Henry was not interested in their excuses and sent Innes and his crew back in 1434.
This time Eanes decided to try a new strategy. Instead of using coastal sailing, they did what most sailors fear: sailing. They sailed into deeper waters to bypass the cape. Eanes’ radical and simple new approach changed the course of history.
As Eanes steered his ship into the heart of the Western Ocean, he unwittingly discovered the key to understanding Atlantic exploration: the Atlantic Gyre.
The existing understanding of Atlantic wind patterns at the time was seriously flawed. As Eanes and other explorers understood, the wind pattern blew in one direction and sailing against that direction was disastrous.
What they didn’t know was that the wind blowing along the coast was only part of the equation. The Atlantic Ocean is governed by powerful ocean currents that do not simply flow in one direction. Rather, it acts like a large gear rotating clockwise.
This current pattern is the Atlantic Gyre. The gyre flows south along the west coast of Africa and then north and west into the Atlantic Ocean.
Sailing west, Eanes and his crew passed Cape Bojador and discovered a gyre that carried them south along the African coast. After the ship rounded the Cape, Eanes and his crew found calm seas and much easier navigation.
Recognizing the seriousness of his discovery, Eanes claimed land beyond the Cape for Portugal. Although his full implications were unknown at the time, Gil Eanes was just beginning his age of exploration.
His explorations paved the way for others to sail past Cape Bojador, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Indian Ocean and beyond. Eanes opened the door to the establishment of a powerful Portuguese trading post empire and established the Portuguese as early leaders of maritime exploration.
Despite the importance of his crew’s accomplishments, Eanes and his men still had to return home to recapture their glory. Sailing straight north along the African coast against the trade winds was not an option.
Worse, attempting that route brings the dangers of Cape Bojador back into the equation. To solve this problem, Eanes decided to use his radical maritime strategy in reverse.
He ordered his sailors to go deeper into the uncharted Atlantic Ocean and find a westerly wind that would sail them away from land and ultimately return them in a great arc to the Portuguese coast.
Eanes discovered the volta do mar (meaning ‘turn of the sea’), the key to Portuguese exploration. The Portuguese used the wheel of ocean currents to open the door to exploration of the Atlantic Ocean.
Their conquest of Cape Bojador dispelled the myth that sailing further south was impossible. Areas not recorded on maps were still unexplored.
At this point Prince Henry’s goal of simply acquiring the Canary Islands seemed small compared to the expanded possibilities beyond Cape Bojador.
To take full advantage of these new possibilities, the Portuguese developed a new type of ship called the caravel. Caravels were lighter, more maneuverable, and had late sails that gave them greater flexibility in coping with changes in wind and current conditions.
The adoption of these triangular sails on Arab dhows gave Portuguese sailors the flexibility to sail at an angle even in headwinds. Portuguese sailors now had the technology to conquer the seas.
Within a few decades, the Portuguese had mapped the entire West African coast, reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, and reached India by the end of the 15th century.
Gil Eanes did not establish a lucrative Portuguese trading post empire. He did not circle the Cape of Good Hope or sail to India. All of these are better known achievements of Portuguese explorers mentioned in history books.
But he took the first important step. He did what was considered the difficult part at the time. He went where no other sailor had gone before and, in the process, broke down barriers for Europeans to explore the world by sea.
He proved that the world does not end on a map, that there are no monsters in the sea, and that you can sail along the African coast and return home.
I’m guessing most of you have never heard of Gil Eanes before. But maybe more people should listen to it. Although he did not discover new lands or pioneer new trade routes, his discovery of navigation made everything that followed possible.
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