Catholicism played two roles in the navigation of Portugal and Spain:
1, Catholicism unified Portugal and Spain, overthrew the rule of Muslim Moors, and Catholicism became the state religion;
In order to convert Muslims and other pagans to Catholicism, Portugal and Spain began to spread Catholicism through navigation.
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Episode 1: Ocean Age
Episode 1 Ocean Age
Conquest begins with being conquered. From BC 1 1 century to AD 1 1 century, the Iberian Peninsula was constantly at war, and this land was conquered by Romans, Germans and Moors successively. Like a desperate matador, people living in this land have never stopped fighting the invaders. Until today, we can still clearly feel the passion for excitement and adventure that seems to be rooted in our genes.
After more than two thousand years, tears, pain and sacrifice finally brought precious freedom.
In A.D. 1 143, in the war of recovering territory, Portugal, an independent monarchy, came into being and was recognized by the Pope. It is the first unified nation-state on the European continent.
Interview: Portuguese historian J H Saraiva
12 and 13 century Portugal is characterized by being not a feudal separatist country, but a people's kingdom. The king of Portugal is supported not only by the nobles, that is, his vassals, but also by the people.
The powerful royal power makes the Portuguese have a strong sense of national belonging, but there is still a long way to go to realize the prosperity of the country. Portugal has less than100000 square kilometers of development space, and resources are very scarce. The continuous war in its east neighbor keeps invading this barren land. Two centuries after independence, the Portuguese kingdom is still in crisis and tottering.
How long can this first nation state last? What will a powerful monarchy bring to it? Where is the future of the Portuguese nation? People who have been fishing offshore for a living have to look to the Atlantic Ocean known as the "Green Sea of Death".
This boat-shaped monument was built by the Portuguese government in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of the navigator Enrique. On the front of the monument is written: "Dedicated to Enrique and the hero who discovered the sea road". It was the ocean road that freed Portugal from poverty and backwardness, and it was also under the leadership of Enrique that Portugal began the journey of conquering the ocean.
Enrique was born in 1394, the third son of King Joao I of Portugal.
At that time, Europe was coming out of the ignorant Middle Ages. The Renaissance, which originated in Italy, gradually started a prairie fire, and the thoughts of science and humanities lit up the European sky bit by bit.
Just when Prince Enrique 12 years old, 1406, the publication of a book that has been dusty for more than 1200 years triggered a revolution in geographical knowledge and concepts. This is the work of Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer.
Interview: Drogin Magellan, former chairman of the Portuguese Navigation Memorial Committee.
Like many works of other Greek scholars, this book was once forgotten by the world at that time. Meanwhile, in Asia, this book has not been forgotten. In western Europe, it was not until Italy's 1406 was taken seriously, and it was printed and published at the end of15th century, and it was widely circulated.
Although today, Ptolemy's world map is full of fallacies, for example, Africa and Antarctica are closely linked, except Europe, Asia and Africa, the world is an endless ocean, and there are no animals and plants living on the equator. At that time, it still provided many more reliable geographical information than those illusory myths and hearsay travel notes.
Is the world really what Ptolemy described? Is the Atlantic really navigable? The huge question mark tortured the European continent and burned Prince Enrique, who was obsessed with geography and navigation strategy.
At the same time, a sudden big change pushed Portugal to the front of history, and it was these seemingly unremarkable pepper grains that incited history.
Today, it is hard for Europeans themselves to understand why their ancestors were so dependent on spices!
Interview: Carlos Malamud, a researcher at the Royal Institute of International Strategic Studies in Spain.
At that time, in the 14 and 15 centuries, the method of preserving food mainly depended on spices, because there was no refrigerator at that time. Therefore, the demand for spices in Europe is very urgent, and the price of spices in the European market has reached an unprecedented height.
However, the lucrative spice trade was first monopolized by Arab merchants, and then blocked by the sudden emergence of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Europe is eager to get rid of the predicament, and both sacred religion and secular commerce hope to find strong measures to reverse this situation. After the failure of military breakthrough on land, restless Europeans began to look for a way out at sea.
How can Europeans succeed?
Sagrish, a small fishing village at the southernmost tip of Portugal, is still desolate.
According to the Portuguese Chronicle, in the 5th century, under the auspices of Prince Enrique, the first national maritime school in human history was established here, and there were observatories and libraries built for navigation. This lighthouse, built in15th century, still stands proudly after nearly 600 years of wind, frost, rain and snow.
Interview: Natalia Correa Geddes, Portuguese professor of religion.
According to the historical records at that time, especially the biographer Fernand Lopez, Prince don enrique was a very cautious and decisive person. He clearly knows what he needs and is good at getting along with excellent assistants.
We don't know whether Prince Enrique, who looks staid, is gifted or tolerant. Italians, Arabs, Jews, Moors, experts and scholars of different races and even different beliefs gathered under his command. They improved the China compass, transforming the traditional European seagoing ship equipped with only one square sail into a multi-masted fast sailing ship equipped with two or three large spinnakers. It is these 20-meter-long, 60-80-ton dhows that finally achieved the ambition of Portuguese explorers. They also set up a committee composed of mathematicians to apply the theories of mathematics and astronomy to navigation, making navigation a real science.
Interview: Portuguese historian J H Saraiva
The great discovery of navigation was first planned in Portugal as a national plan, a national plan and a plan presided over by a prince. This makes Portugal's maritime discovery not an isolated exploration for trade, but a planned and systematically organized task and strategy for 200 years.
Through more than 20 years of theoretical and practical exploration, the mysterious and daunting Atlantic Ocean has gradually revealed some laws. The Portuguese finally set off for the south.
For every visitor to Portugal, Cape Roca is an inevitable choice. It is the "ends of the earth" in Europe and the last memory of the sailors on the voyage.
Just in autumn, the cold sea breeze has already blown tourists off their feet!
For thousands of years, this huge rock stretching out to the sea is like a lonely old man, helplessly watching the nightmare of the choppy Atlantic Ocean and Europe. It was not until the 6th century AD/KLOC-that Camons, the greatest poet in Portuguese history, wrote an epic song of Portuguese struggle against the sea. Cape Roca swept away the bleak and lost haze of the past and became the fulcrum for Europeans to explore the new continent.
"The land ends here and the ocean begins here." (Subtitle)
Day after day, year after year, some people come back and some people disappear.
In A.D. 1443, Portuguese navigator, under the command of Prince Enrique, crossed the Cape of Bohado on the west African coast from Cape Rocca. Before that, it was the end of the known world.
For this day, Prince Enrique and his fleet have been fighting for 2 1 year.
Compared with China Zheng He's mixed fleet, the Portuguese's two or three sailboats are insignificant, but with their adventurous nature, desire for wealth and strong religious enthusiasm, the Portuguese finally broke through the psychological and physical limits of sailing in medieval Europe.
Interview: Luis Adam da Fonseca, Vice President of Porto University, Portugal.
With the continuous overseas expansion, people have reached more and more sea areas, thus forming a new understanding of the "ocean", which is today's Atlantic Ocean. People used to think that the "big ocean" was just a long and narrow coastal sea area, but now they find that this big ocean is much bigger than they thought, and it extends infinitely to the south and west at the same time.
When the Portuguese went south along the west coast of Africa, a steady stream of gold, ivory and African pepper poured into Lisbon, filling the Portuguese treasury.
Fortunately, during nearly a century when Portugal explored the ocean vigorously and benefited from it, the rest of Europe was still in the middle ages:
Britain and France have not yet formed a unified nation-state, and wars between nobles continue;
Hundreds of countries, large and small, on German soil are playing the game of attacking far and defending near;
Italian city-states are enjoying the last good time brought by traditional trade;
Portugal's neighbor Spain is still struggling for the country's recovery.
By 1460, the west coast of Africa painted by Portugal has reached 4000 kilometers. This year, Enrique passed away, and this lifelong unmarried saint who was punished for 45 years in Sagrish returned to his parents.
Although Enrique never went to sea in person in his life, he is worthy of the title of "navigator", because all the great discoveries in the history of European navigation began with the navigation plan that he devoted his life to organizing and implementing.
1487 In July, 27 years after Enrique's death, King Joao II, the successor of Portuguese navigation, sent Dias to lead three sailboats south along the Atlantic Ocean.
After sailing for half a year, the fleet suddenly encountered a rare storm. After being trapped by the storm and drifting passively to the southeast for 13 days and nights, Diaz ordered the fleet to turn around and head north. At this time, he was surprised to find that the fleet had bypassed the southernmost tip of Africa. In order to commemorate the legendary experience of this narrow escape, Diaz named this promontory "Storm Corner".
But Joao II changed his name to "Cape of Good Hope" seriously. Now, with one more effort, the Portuguese can reach their dream East. The opening of trade routes means that the wealth of spice trade will soon be in Portugal's hands.
At this time, however, Portugal met a powerful opponent, that is, Spain, a newly unified neighbor. So, what will the Spanish compete with Portugal?
Granada is the most Islamic city in Spain today. The Alhambra Palace, a classic of Islamic architecture, is still elegant and dignified after centuries of war.
More than 500 years ago, the last battle of the Spanish recovery movement was held here. 1490 Spring, Queen Isabel of Spain led a hundred thousand troops to surround Granada.
Interview: Spanish military historian Julio Penalanda Alba.
The reconstruction of the Kingdom of Spain owes much to the war to recover lost territory, which lasted for eight centuries. In the15th century, Granada was still under the rule of Moors, who were Muslims.
In this stone castle opposite Granada, Queen Isabel personally supervised the war. The queen is always white, bathing and changing clothes four times a day, and her beauty once amazed the European royal family. But this time, she made a heavy oath: she will never take off her shirt without winning Granada.
1492 65438+1On October 2nd, under the fierce attack of the Spanish army, the Moors abandoned the city and surrendered. Eight centuries of war are over. Queen Isabel kissed the land of Granada and walked into the Alhambra Palace with her husband, King Fernand of Germany.
Just when the unification of Spain was just completed, history gave Spain a golden opportunity.
When the Queen entered Granada's team, a Genoese was waiting for the Queen's call. He was Christopher Columbus, who became famous all over the world.
From the widely circulated theory of the earth's sphere at that time, Columbus came up with an idea that you can also reach the East by going west. Columbus believed that his sailing plan would soon bring Europeans to the East, but six years before that, Columbus was given a cold shoulder in Portugal.
Interview: Vice President of Gutierrez Meliado College.
Gouel Vaarango, Fernand Ameligo
Joao II didn't accept Columbus's suggestion, because Portugal's navigation strategy was mainly to cross the Cape of Good Hope, cross Africa eastward, and seek new routes to reach Asia in order to trade with India.
Portuguese experts with rich navigation knowledge believe that the actual distance from sailing west to east will far exceed Columbus' prediction. But it was the correct judgment of Portuguese experts that made the Kingdom of Portugal lose a historical opportunity.
1492 65438+ 10, Queen Isabel, who had just completed the great cause of reunification, summoned Columbus for the third time.
Portugal's rapid rise by relying on sea power has made Europe jealous, but the lack of financial resources, material resources and talents has discouraged all kings, nobles and businessmen. The ambitious Queen Isabel spent 23 years creating a unified Spain. Now, she has become the general sponsor of Spanish ocean exploration.
Interview: Sonia Arda mesias, Professor of Gutierrez Meliado College.
Only a unified country has enough strength and determination to finance such a great voyage as Columbus, which fully shows the strength and determination of the European feudal powers at that time.
Columbus negotiated with the Spanish royal family for three months.
Columbus, who was born in a cloth merchant family, was exposed to bargaining business since he was a child, and his eight-year sailing experience in Portugal gave him a reason to raise prices. Columbus rightfully fought for enough rights for himself.
And the queen doesn't think it's wrong to sit down with an ordinary person and discuss the distribution of benefits.
Interview: Professor carlos martinez Shaw of National Distance Education University of Spain.
Although the occupation of the colony was completed by explorers, it was based on contracts and treaties signed with the royal family, just like the lead singer in the chorus. The acquired colony was colonized by explorers, but the sovereignty of the colony still belongs to the royal family.
1492 17 in April, the two sides signed an agreement, and the will of the country was finally combined with the will of the navigator.
Columbus was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the discovery site, and he could get one-tenth of all the wealth and commodities obtained by the discovery site, and he was tax-free; In the future, Columbus can charge one-eighth of the profits for ships sailing to this territory.
On August 3rd, Columbus boarded the deck with Admiral of the fleet's letter of appointment issued by the Queen, and issued sailing orders for three sailboats sponsored by the Queen.
To the west, then to the west. The sailboat sailed into the hinterland of the Atlantic Ocean.
In order to reduce the crew's fear of leaving the land too far, Columbus secretly adjusted the log book tool and underreported the sailing mileage every day. But even so, two months later, this fleet with nothing came to the brink of collapse.
10 10/month 10, the restless and angry crew claimed that if they continued to move westward, they would rebel. After a heated debate, Columbus proposed: go for another three days. After three days, if land is still out of sight, the fleet will return.
Interview: Professor carlos martinez Shaw of National Distance Education University of Spain.
It was undoubtedly wise of him to do so, because only three days after the riot, the sailors who opposed him shouted on the mast, "Land!" "This day is 1492 10 10/2.
At this moment the hero was born!
The land that Columbus and his crew saw was the Bahamas in present-day North America. From that day on, the divided world began to connect.
Although Columbus thought he had arrived in India until his death, in fact, he arrived in a new continent that Europeans had never known, neither China nor India.
Because of Columbus' misjudgment, the aborigines in this land have a name that has nothing to do with them-Indians. To this day, we still feel that they are distant relatives in Asia.
In the year when Columbus left, the earliest globe was made. On this earth, this part of the American continent is still an ocean.
The news of Spain's success shocked the whole of Europe. This day-10 year10 month 12, was later designated as Spain's national day.
The welcoming ceremony was very warm. Queen Isabel fulfilled all the material and spiritual rewards promised to Columbus. Columbus was surrounded by six Indians and paraded in the city with colorful parrots.
But it was not Isabel, queen of Spain, who first saw Columbus win, but Joao II, king of Portugal who refused Columbus. Columbus returned to Lisbon first, and Joao II specially received him.
Joao II brought a bowl of dried beans with a grain of salt, which made the Indians brought by Columbus look like the New World at the dinner table. This geography game later made him secretly beat his chest: "People with short knowledge, why did I let such an important activity slip away?"
Everything is irreversible, the unknown world has just surfaced, and competition has been placed in front of two neighboring maritime powers. Who will have the right to discover the future world?
Interview: Portuguese historian J H Saraiva
At that time, the theory about the ocean thought that the ocean was not open, and people thought that the ocean belonged to its discoverer. There is no doubt that the Portuguese discovered it.
After nearly a year of negotiations, 1494 On June 7, under the auspices of the Pope, Portugal and Spain signed a treaty in this small town outside Lisbon: draw a line on the earth, and then cut the earth in half like a watermelon. Portugal occupied the East and Spain embraced America.
Judging from the oil paintings painted at that time, the bargaining process was extremely fierce, but in fact, accurate calculation didn't make much sense, because both the Portuguese and the Spanish had just had a little contact with the mainland outside Europe, and no one knew how big the earth was.
Interview: isid ro sepúlveda muoz, Dean of Gutierrez Meliado College.
The significance of this treaty in western civilization lies in setting a precedent for the great powers to carve up colonies. This trend reached its peak in the later Berlin Treaty. European countries sit together and distribute all the known and unknown places in the world, forming the embryonic form of today's world pattern. We can say that the global expansion of the western world began with this treaty.
The rules of the game have been worked out, and the next step is to see who moves faster.
1498 In May, after four years of life and death test, the fleet led by Portuguese navigator da Gama finally arrived at the Indian port of Kallikat, where Zheng He showed the prestige of the kingdom of heaven when he went to the West 70 years ago.
Unlike Zheng He, the Portuguese brought more than just friendly greetings this time. When the Indians asked them the purpose of their trip, Da Gama simply replied, "Christians, spices." This is exactly what Portugal has been fighting for. After nearly a century of hard exploration, Prince Enrique's wish has finally come true, and decades of knowledge and courage accumulated by European navigators have begun to turn into dazzling wealth.
In the face of Portugal's success in the east, Spain set out again.
1565438+On September 20th, 2009, another navigator, Magellan, who was neglected by Portugal, took five ships and 265 crew members to sail around the world for the first time in human history.
This is undoubtedly an epoch-making feat, and its significance can even be compared with that of humans leaving the earth and landing on the moon. The difference is that when American astronaut neil armstrong took that step carefully, he knew that at least 700 million people around the world were cheering for him.
But Magellan was not so lucky 450 years ago. After 1080 days and nights, 17000 kilometers, 152 1 year, on September 5, in this magnificent church, 18 survivors around the world held lighted candles and prayed for the warriors who died in this epic voyage, including them in the Philippines.
18 candlelight is so weak, but it illuminates the process of human civilization!
What is presented to western Europeans now is not a quarter of a hemisphere, but the whole earth.
With the rapid rotation of the earth and the hard work of cartographers day and night, people still can't meet the demand for revised maps. The map was taken away when it was wet and unpainted, and the new route opened by navigators became the chain that Europe controlled the world.
Under the fierce attack of ships and guns, the strategic points of maritime traffic have become Portugal's bag. It is by using more than 50 strongholds from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean that Portugal monopolizes merchant shipping routes in half the world. /kloc-In the first five years of the 6th century, Portugal's spice trade rose rapidly from 220,000 pounds to 2.3 million pounds, making it the first powerful country in maritime trade at that time.
Compared with Portugal's harvest in the East, Spain's plunder in the American continent is more direct.
According to statistics, from 1502 to 1660, Spain received 18600 tons of registered silver and 200 tons of registered gold from the United States. By the end of 16, 83% of the world's total gold and silver output was occupied by Spain.
With the expansion of Europeans, it is a sad song of the two major centers of civilization in America. By 1570, the population of Mexico decreased from 25 million to 2.65 million, and that of Peru decreased from 9 million to 654.38+300,000. Since then, the native Indians on the American continent have drastically decreased by 90%.
Interview: Antonio Manuel Espa Nat Oscimen, a professor at the University of New Lisbon.
When the royal families of Portugal and Spain were unified, it was during the reign of Philip I of Portugal or Philip II of Spain. It is said that the sun in Philip's kingdom never set, because the territories of Portuguese and Spanish kings reached the whole world, from Mexico to the Philippines, China, India and Africa.
In Europe, Spain rules nearly half of the Catholic world; In Asia, it conquered the Philippines; All America except Brazil is owned by Spain. Portuguese colonies are all over Africa, Brazil and islands on Atlantic and Indian Ocean routes.
The Iberian Peninsula has created a mythical miracle. Will this miracle come and go like a fairy tale?
This is the only square in Madrid named after the country. The monument to Cervantes, the pride of Spain, stands in the center. Everyone who comes near Cervantes can't help touching Don Quixote riding a thin horse and Sancho, the servant behind him.
Interview: isid ro sepúlveda muoz, Dean of Gutierrez Meliado College.
Cervantes published many books before his death, and his plays were also very popular at that time. However, when he was old, he lived in poverty, and all the important people he knew didn't give him enough life support, so that he was still poor when he died.
The fate of Cervantes, intentionally or unintentionally, reflects the rise and fall of Iberian Peninsula.
Supported by powerful kingship and fanatical religious belief, Iberian Peninsula conquered the ocean and gained the world. However, the flood of wealth was almost used to support the war of religious belief and colonial expansion, rather than to develop industry and commerce that could really make the country rich and strong. Powerful princes and nobles do not want to see the development of industry and commerce lead to the rise of new forces. They even absurdly drove thousands of foreigners engaged in industry and commerce away from their own land.
Interview: Professor carlos martinez Shaw of National Distance Education University of Spain.
Spain gradually got used to it, no longer investing in domestic industries, but buying expensive foreign goods instead. Over time, the domestic industry has shrunk dramatically and the currency has depreciated sharply, but people are still addicted to consumption.
Interview: Drogin Magellan, former chairman of the Portuguese Navigation Memorial Committee.
We know that an organization is very likely to "die" because it has no ability to make changes. I also know that this happened during the colonial expansion of Portugal and Spain, and it declined because it could not be changed.
The sun in Cape Roca slowly sets, which is the last ray of sunshine in continental Europe.
In the second half of the16th century, the Iberian Peninsula, which was once rich in gold and silver and the state machine was extremely powerful, began to make a curtain call in world performances. The wealth that flowed in like water is gone again. Apart from the extravagant social atmosphere, there is no decent industry left, and the people don't even have decent clothes, food, shelter and transportation.
Perhaps, Don Quixote, who was addicted to the heroic dream of the Middle Ages, didn't understand until his death. His shield covered an old world and his spear stabbed a new world, and his ending could only be helplessness and failure again and again!
The first great drama on the stage of world history ended tragically. Next, which country will perform in the glory of the new world?