Quotes About History

Portuguese knowledge of the oceans and of the world beyond the Iberian peninsula.

Magellan could seize any Arabs he found in the Portuguese hemisphere

Magellan came across Arabs in the Spanish hemisphere, he was to treat them well

but at the same time he turned a blind eye to the scandals and mutinies surrounding Magellan

Elcano, the Basque mariner, took command and immediately ordered the imprisonment of two Portuguese

Although Portugal was celebrated for leading Europe into the Age of Discovery, Portuguese kings often frustrated their heroic mariners.

In 1488, during the reign of João II, Bartolomeu Dias reached the southernmost point of Africa and rounded what is now known as the Cape of Good Hope;

accounts from Magellan's time mention their daunting stern castles, their multiple decks, and the profusion of obras muertas, or "dead wood

King Charles was supposed to pay for Magellan's ships, according to the contract, he was deeply in debt.

Vasco da Gama retraced Dias's route around the tip of Africa and reached Mozambique on the southeastern coast;

Magellan referred the distinguished members of the Casa to a clause in the Treaty of Tordesillas

Da Gama received a royal appointment as viceroy of India

The Solis-Pinzón expedition, which embarked in 1508, discovered nothing, and when the expedition's two ships returned to Spain

cape which we discovered before this spit is called the Cape of the [Eleven Thousand] Virgins

Manuel's harshest policies concerned the Jews of Portugal

made him pilot major; he then received an ambitious new commission to claim the Spice Islands for Spain.

Dates are given in the Julian calendar, in effect since the time of Julius Caesar.

when King Manuel wished to take the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella as his wife

originally published in eight volumes in Valladolid, Spain, in 1545

he was told that he could do so only on condition that he "purify" Portugal by expelling the Jews

Despite these accommodations, anti-Semitism in Portugal led to a massacre of Jews in Lisbon in 1506.

Manuel punished those responsible, but the legacy of bitterness lingered, and many Jews left the country for the Netherlands.

Winter had navigated the Strait not just once, as Magellan and Drake had, but twice.

long and checkered history in the service of the Portuguese empire in Africa: Fernão de Magalhães, or Ferdinand Magellan.