Nautical training and ship command in Portugal (15th-19th centuries) [2004] (original) (raw)
Early modern oceans not only provided temperate climates, resources, and opportunities for commercial exchange, they also played a central role in cultural life. Increased exploration, travel, and trade, marked this period of history, and early modern seascapes were cultural spaces and contact zones, where connections and circulations occurred outside established centres of control and the dictates of individual national histories. Likewise, coastlines, rivers, and ports were all key sites for commercial and cultural exchange. Interdisciplinary in its approach, Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800: Cultures of the Sea welcomes books from across the full range of humanities subjects, and invites submissions that conceptually engage with issues of globalization, postcolonialism, eco-criticism, environmentalism, and the histories of science and technology. The series puts maritime humanities at the centre of a transnational historiographical scholarship that seeks to transform traditional land-based histories of states and nations by focusing on the cultural meanings of the early modern ocean.
Studying the Geographical explorations of the Portuguese and the Spanish in the 15th century
Sprin Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 2024
This article explores the dynamics of domination and subordination during the mid-15th century, marked by the Arab and Ottoman Empire's dominance in the Middle East, posing obstacles to European relations with China and India. In response, Western European nations, particularly Portugal and Spain, emerged as leaders in exploration, seeking alternative routes to bypass the challenges of the Middle East. Liberated from Muslim influence, these nations focused their efforts on discovering new sea routes to India and beyond. The narrative centers on Portuguese sailor Henry's role in planning expeditions to the Canary Islands, aiming to identify novel commercial routes for Portugal's development in Africa. Subsequently, the Spanish, influenced by Portugal's efforts, discovered new lands by employing Christopher Columbus. Columbus initially proposed his plan, "The Way to India," to the King of Portugal, but it was rejected. Turning to Spain in 1484, he secured the Queen's consent with the help of his shipbuilder brother, ultimately discovering America. Employing a descriptive-analytical research method, this article utilizes library research to delve into the historical background and explore the intricacies of European exploration during this transformative period.
The Development of the Portuguese Frigate-Merchant of the Late-17th Century
Portugal is a country with an area of 92,361 km2, smaller than the state of Indiana in the United State of America. Despite its small size, in the Modern Age it was able to maintain a prodigious trade network extending over 100,000,000 km2; an area roughly 10 times greater that the surface of the U.S.A. The complexities and challenges of this 300- year commercial empire spawned the development of a different type of vessel during the 17th century, the Portuguese Frigate-Merchant.
Portugal?s maritime vocation for a new century
2015
This paper will discuss the features and the trends of Portugal?s future maritime activities in the context of a political process related to the enlargement of the continental shelf. It is our belief that the extension of Portugal?s continental shelf will have a multidimensional impact over a set of different economic activities and it will represent a major challenge in terms of our geopolitical orientation. This way, we chose a set of specialists with different scientific backgrounds and professional experience, in order to put our main hypothesis into test. In practical terms, and with the goal to evaluate our main objective, we have launched a DELPHI survey, collecting the opinion of said pre-selected panel of specialists. This panel included specialists in politics, economics, military and academia. This paper is divided into four sections: In the first part, we will discuss some theoretical trends related to maritime related activities and maritime transport that might have a...
This study analyzes the organization of nautical teaching in Portugal in the period between 1762 and 1807. Since 1760 the Portuguese nautica started an institutionalized apprenticeship within the education reform initiated in the reign of D. Joseph I and developed by his daughter D. Maria I. The class of chief cosmographer disappeared to give place to a more professional structure enhanced by the emergence of academies created specifically for this purpose, which would be the precursor of polytechnic education in Portugal. The first step in pilotage teaching was given in Oporto with the creation of a nautical class in 1762 and later on with the appearance in Lisbon of the Royal Marine Academy (1779) and the Royal Marine Guards Academy (1782). This piece of work, about the main Portuguese nautical schools in the eighteenth century, their curricula, teachers, goals and achievements, is part of an ongoing PhD project.
Charts for an empire. A global trading zone in early modern Portuguese nautical cartography
Centaurus, 2018
The global phenomenon of maritime expansion and the measures of control imposed by the interventionism of the Iberian crowns generated a context that sheds light on the Zilselian issue: the contact between artisans and university‐trained men in early modern Europe. This is an old and controversial topic. However, this article does not focus solely on the economic and social reasons for this contact, but also on epistemological and political motivations. With the specific aim of illustrating this collaboration, the article analyses some of the empirical practices developed under the Portuguese maritime empire throughout the 16th century. This is achieved through the reconstruction of the process of production of nautical charts in the Armazéns da Guiné e Índia (Storehouse of Guinea and Indies) of Lisbon, which I consider a large‐scale “trading zone.” This reconstruction throws light not only on the technical complexity of these cognitive processes and the coordinated work of the different agents involved in their production, but also on the emergence of new spaces of knowledge and new communities of practitioners (with new professional statuses) linked to them; new methods of collection and management of information; and, finally, new forms of circulation and standardization of knowledge in the early modern period.
Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1600
2016
Commissioned by Jordana Dym (Skidmore College) This collection of essays is a handbook for the English-speaking world interested in the Portuguese expansion overseas, in which Francisco Bethencourt and Diogo Ramada Curto set an agenda for a new set of approaches to the study of the Portuguese expansion. First, they wish to provide a global and comparative perspective of the Portuguese expansion. Second, they want to break