The Great Navigations took place between the 15th and 16th centuries and represented a period of expansion of commerce and mercantilism in Europe.
These were trips made by European navigators, with great emphasis on the Portuguese and Spanish, who undertook in search of new routes essentially for economic and territorial reasons. The period is also known as the Age of Discovery.
The Great Navigations are part of the European Maritime Expansion, which allowed Europeans to sail to different continents (such as the Americas and Africa) and discover routes that were previously unheard of.
Historical context of Grand Navigation
To understand the reasons that led to the great navigations, it is interesting to understand the historical and social context that existed at the time.
The European Continent was going through a moment of transition, marked by important events that influenced and boosted the Great Navigations. In short, Europe was in a transitional period of end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Modern Age.
The emergence of mercantilism it is also an important factor of the moment, as it determined some changes in the economic bases of society. The system, as with capitalism later, began to encourage the accumulation of wealth, especially metals and precious stones - riches that were highly valued at the time.
Another important event was the emergence of Anthropocentrism, ideas that changed the way of thinking of the period, as they placed man at the center of the questions. Anthropocentrism was a form of opposition to Theocentrism, highly valued at the time, which had God as the source of all answers. This new possibility of questioning also encouraged the new discoveries of European navigators.
The Causes of Great Navigation
As we have seen, the Great Navigations took place for territorial and economic reasons, linked to the rise of mercantilism. The principles of the system begin to appear, taking the place of old practices and making commerce a more profitable activity.
Although these are the main causes, other factors also contributed:
- Emergence of political centralization: until that moment, political power was decentralized and exercised essentially by feudal lords, according to their domains. After the emergence of the first National States (more politically and territorially organized), Greater political centralization begins to take place, which strengthens and finances the desire for expansion maritime.
- growth of the bourgeoisie: the emergence of this social class caused changes in the bases of the economy at the time, the main one being the strengthening of trade. Furthermore, the bourgeois also supported the consolidation of political centralization.
- New navigation technologies: the emergence of innovations related to navigation also encouraged Great Navigations. The evolution of mapping and the creation of mechanisms that facilitated location, such as the compass, were fundamental.
- trade expansion: with the growth and consolidation of commercial activities, the need arose to find new markets that could also be consumers of products manufactured on the European continent.
- Conquest of new territories: reaching new locations and expanding territorial domains were the main goals of browsers. For this, it was necessary to explore new navigation routes.
Portuguese pioneering
The Portuguese were the first navigators who headed to the American Continent in search of new routes. Its pioneering spirit is due to some factors:
- Portugal was one of the first countries to form a National State;
- already had browsing experience;
- the country had a privileged geographic location.
The first Portuguese navigation took place in 1415, when ships arrived on the island of Ceuta, on the African continent. The sailings to Ceuta were motivated by a crisis of precious metals that had hit Portugal. The trigger for the crisis came from the ban on gold exports, which happened at the beginning of the 15th century. The ban created obstacles to the production of coins, which were made from this precious metal.
After the first, other important Portuguese navigations were carried out. Some examples are: arrival in the Azores (1419), Cape Verde (1444), Cabo da Boa Esperança (1488) and the arrival of Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) in India (1498).
Caravel de São Cristóvão: the navigator Bartolomeu Dias arrived at the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) in 1488.
already the first arrival in Brazilian territory it happened in 1500, when the ships captained by Pedro Álvares Cabral (1467-1520) arrived in the Porto Seguro region.
Spanish navigations
Spain was the second country to embark on navigation in search of new routes. The first record took place in 1492, when the navigator Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) arrived in America.
THE first Spanish arrival in Brazilian territory it also happened in 1500, when the navigator Vicente Pinzón (1462-1514) arrived in the region of the state of Amazonas.
They also stand out in Spanish navigations: arrival in the region of Venezuela (1499), the first circumnavigation voyage (1519) undertaken by Fernão de Magalhães (1480-1521) and Juan Sebastián Elcano (1476-1526) and the arrival in Paraguay (1537).
Other European Navigations
In addition to the Portuguese and Spanish navigations, there were also exploratory navigations from Holland, France and England. The voyages made by navigators from these countries were equally motivated by territorial and economic conquests.
You Dutchmen managed to reach the Caribbean and Indonesian territories. In Brazil, they occupied part of the current northeast region, being present in Bahia and Pernambuco, where they founded a colony called Nova Holanda.
The Dutch presence in Pernambuco (John Ogilby/1671).
browsers french they undertook voyages towards North America. They also arrived in Brazil, at two different points: Maranhão and Rio de Janeiro.
already the English they were successful in reaching both North and South America.
Consequences of Large Navigations
The Great Navigations had many consequences and were responsible for countless changes in world history. The main ones were:
- consolidation of trade as one of the economic bases of the modern period,
- large amount of conquered territories,
- greater appreciation of Portugal and Spain in economic issues,
- beginning of enslavement and trade of Africans,
- beginning of the colonization processes of territories on several continents.
See also the meanings of mercantilism and colonization.