THE ROLE OF PRINCE HENRIQUE

At the start of the fifteenth century, Europeans understood little about the Atlantic outside of their own coastal waters. They regarded with awe and foreboding the mighty Ocean Sea, which stretched away to the north and west into a mysterious world of storms, mists and cold. The south, being almost wholly unknown, they feared even more; many mariners doubted whether any ship that ventured far in that direction could possibly return. Yet, as the century wore on, perceptions changed greatly. Europeans accumulated more and more knowledge about the Atlantic – knowledge based on actual observation and experience. They learned about its wind systems, currents and weather patterns, and they developed the ships, navigational techniques and practical know-how to sail almost anywhere within its waters, confident they could return safely. By the late 1480s they had successfully explored the entire length of Africa's Atlantic coast and found almost all the ocean's significant archipelagoes.

The Portuguese were in the forefront of this momentous process. They were the principal European pioneers of African coastal sailing, and it was they who first rounded the southern tip of Africa, finally passing from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. Their voyages along these coasts were therefore the prelude to one of the most significant breakthroughs in world history – the linking of the Atlantic maritime communications system to that of the Indian Ocean.