Innovation in the Age of Exploration

The following by Anthony Disney appears in Historically Speaking (June 2010). Recently posted to Project Muse, the full issue and this article are here.

Prince Henry of Portugal and the Sea Route to India
Anthony Disney

In 1497-98 a Portuguese fleet commanded by Vasco da Gama made one of the most momentous communications breakthroughs in global history by successfully sailing from Western Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope. Yet Gama’s breakthrough was neither surprising nor particularly sudden, for it came as the climax of a long, cumulative process of voyaging and exploration that had been set in motion some eight or nine decades before, in the early years of the 15th century. The person long regarded as most responsible for this process was Prince Henry, third son of King John I of Portugal, generally referred to in Anglophone historiography as Henry the Navigator. Henry is traditionally considered to have had more influence on the direction of world history than any other Portuguese, and he is certainly the best-known individual from his nation who has ever lived. But now, in the early 21st century, to what extent can his illustrious reputation still be sustained?

Henry’s involvement in voyages of exploration began as a by-product of a great amphibious expedition mounted in 1415 by John I against the Moroccan port city of Ceuta. While Portuguese fishermen seeking to exploit the rich fishing grounds off North Africa and Portuguese corsairs cruising in search of Muslim shipping to prey upon had probably already gained some experience of sailing in these waters before this major expedition, it was only in its aftermath that systematic, organized Portuguese voyaging off Atlantic Africa commenced. Ceuta, located on the African side of the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, was only a short sea passage from Portugal. It was both the hub of a flourishing agricultural region, and a well-known trading center serving as a clearinghouse for exotic goods from trans-Saharan and Near East caravans. Some Portuguese merchants also saw Ceuta as a potential source of wheat, which Portugal did not produce in abundance and therefore needed to import. Nevertheless, recent historiography has tended to view the main impetus for the expedition as coming less from the mercantile sector than from the Portuguese service nobility supported by elements from within the clergy. These groups saw attacking Ceuta as an extension of Iberia’s long tradition of Reconquest—a new stage in the war against Islam. In any event, in 1415 the Portuguese duly succeeded in occupying the city, and a long and draining period of Portuguese territorial involvement in Morocco then followed.

Soon after the 1415 conquest of Ceuta, Prince Henry, who had been one of the expedition’s most active participants and who remained a dedicated proponent of Portuguese expansion in Morocco for the rest of his life, began to sponsor voyages of exploration southward along the Moroccan Atlantic coast. The common assumption that, in doing this, Henry was specifically trying to reach the Indian Ocean by sailing around the southern tip of Africa, is not borne out by the evidence. Actually, his objectives are discussed in some detail in the much-cited seventh chapter of Gomes Eanes de Zurara’s classic Crónica do descobrimento e conquista da Guiné, the main contemporary source for his voyages, where they are placed into three broad categories.2 These may be summarized as (1) an economic agenda in which the pursuit of personal material gain was paramount; (2) a political-ideological agenda with the expansion of Christendom (particularly at the expense of Islam) as its principal component; and (3) a proto-scientific agenda that included, on the one hand, acquiring more geographical knowledge, and, on the other, refining ship design and improving techniques of navigation in order to make longer ocean voyaging possible. read on>>>

Dispatches from the Historical Society Conference, Day 3: New Directions in the Study of Race and Slavery

Randall J.Stephens

Historians of the last two generations have been fascinated by the question of what race amounted to, or, how race was made. How was racial inferiority constructed and how did slavery take root in the early modern era? This panel, fitting with the umbrella theme of the conference, looked at some recent trends in the study of race and slavery. The three presenters skillfully spanned the centuries and ranged over several continents. (See the Youtube videos here, which record the first 10 minutes of each presentation.)

Session IVE: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF RACE AND SLAVERY
Room 413-14

Chair: Mark Smith, University of South Carolina

Joyce Malcolm, George Mason University School of Law, “Slavery in 18th-Century Massachusetts and the American Revolution”

Robert Cottrol, George Washington School of Law, “Race-Based Slavery and Race-Based Citizenship: How Brazil and the United States Became Different”

Amy Long Caffee, University of South Carolina, “Hearing Africa: Early Modern Europeans’ Auditory Perceptions of the African Other”

Joyce Malcolm (George Mason University School of Law) spoke about the legacy of slavery in the North during the Revolutionary War. She began by describing the surprising number of slaves in Massachusetts. Military service and its link to freedom varied widely between the North and the South. Malcolm called on historians to closer examine what happened to black soldiers after the war. She also pointed to the need for greater scrutiny of the possibilities and limits of freedom in the emerging nation. (The last New Hampshire slaves, noted Malcolm, died in the years before the Civil War.)

Robert Cottrol (George Washington School of Law) invited historians to think of the issue of slavery and its

legacy beyond the antebellum narrative and beyond the South. He called on historians to look at Latin America, opening up a bigger, hemisphere-wide picture. Slavery in Brazil, for instance, took place for a much longer period and was much more intensely tied to the African trade. Comparisons and contrasts between national legal systems explain some basic differences between North and South America. America's egalitarian ideals were embarrassed by slavery. Slavery's justification in the US revolved around race and black inferiority. Brazil, by contrast, was not a liberal society and was not as contradicted by the institution of slavery. Cottrol also asked several larger questions that are part of a broader project, including: "What is slavery's impact in terms of race relations?" And, he wondered: "How has slavery continued to shape the Western Hemisphere up to the present?"

Early in the European-African encounter white perceptions of Africans were shaping ideas of racial difference. Amy Long Caffee (University of South

Carolina) discussed the auditory notions English traders had of Africans in the early modern period. White traders and travelers reported their views to a larger public back in England. The documents of such venturers, observed Caffee, are "rich with sensory details." These reports speak volumes about what Englishmen thought of as a "barbarous land and people."

Summarizing the panel Mark Smith (University of South Carolina) commented that slavery was not an anomaly in the 19th century. It was the norm. Smith also linked the stereotypes, sensory and otherwise, of the 19th century to similar ones in the 20th century.

During the q and a session, participants considered where the field is headed. Malcolm thinks that more connections will be made between regions and eras. She also believes that the stereotypes of the antebellum period will be challenged more. Cottrol suggested that changes in graduate education--encouraging students to ask larger questions and requiring language work--could shift the field. Smith finally pointed out that emancipation and questions of slavery and freedom will possibly become a greater part of how historians in the area work.

Roanoke Roundup

Randall Stephens

William Stith, History of the Firft Discovery and Settlement of Virginia (Williamsburg, 1747).
This Colony chofe Roanoke, an Ifland at the Mouth of Albermarle Sound, for the Place of their Habitation; and their chief Employment was to reconnoitre and view the Country. Their fartheft Difcovery to the Southward was Seeotan, an Indian Town, by their Reckoning, eighty Leagues from Roanoke, lying up between the Rivers Pampticoe and Neus, in North-Carolina. To the Northward they went an hundred and thirty Miles to the Chefapeaks, a Nation of Indians, feared on a fmall River, to the South of our Bay, now cabled Elfabeth River, from whom, as thefe firft Difcoverers tell us, the Bay itfelf took its Name. >>>

Steven Morris, "Bideford Mayor Hunts US 'Lost Colony' Clues," Guardian, May 6, 2010.
A mayor in north Devon is attempting to help rewrite American history by proving that people from his small port town settled in the US 30 years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail. Andy Powell hopes to find funds for DNA tests that might help demonstrate Bideford's "pivotal" role in the history of modern America. If he can find the proof, the town might find itself at the centre of a tourism boom. >>>

"Local Legacies: The Lost Colony," Library of Congress.
The mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke Island has been passed down from generation to generation since their discovered disappearance in 1590-three years after the settlers from England landed. Did the 120 men, women, and children assimilate with the friendly Croatoan natives or the Chesapeake tribe? Or were they massacred by the unfriendly Wanchese tribe? This legend gains more poignancy when you consider that Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parentage in America, was among these brave pioneers. >>>

Drew DeSilver, "A Kingdom Strange: A new look at the Lost Colony of Roanoke" (a review of James Horn's new book), Seattle Times, May 1, 2010.
For a people who celebrate success as much as Americans do, we have something of a romantic affinity for failure. The Confederacy may have fallen, but as the Lost Cause it inspired, among other things, "Gone With the Wind." The Chicago Cubs have legions of fans who've never set foot inside Wrigley Field; they love the team not despite its decades of futility but largely because of them. More than 400 years after it disappeared, the Lost Colony of Roanoke, in what is now North Carolina's Outer Banks, continues to fascinate. >>>

Greg Schneider, "Book review: 'A Kingdom Strange,' by James Horn," Washington Post, April 25, 2010.
In 1587, 20 years before Jamestown, English settlers founded a colony on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This wasn't some hardened outpost of soldiers. It was families, husbands with pregnant wives, fathers with young sons -- 118 people in all. They built a fort, befriended some of the natives and produced the first English baby born in the New World: Virginia Dare. And within three years, they all disappeared. The fate of the Lost Colony is a mystery at the heart of the nation's founding, chock full of odd characters, conspiracy theories, strange turns of events -- even enigmatic carvings left behind on tree trunks. >>>

Praise for Recent Themes in the History of Africa and the Atlantic World

Randall Stephens

In 1963, writes Sandra Amponsah in the African Studies Quarterly, Hugh Trevor-Roper thought African history had little to recommend it as a field. “Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach," he sniffed. "But at present there is none, or very little: there is only the history of Europe in Africa." Amponsah writes that "Now we can all call ourselves Africanists or Atlanticists, or so it appears, as the history of Africa and Atlantic world have become the subjects of interest among scholars of the Caribbean, North and South America, Africa, and Western Europe." Recent Themes in the History of Africa and the Atlantic World, edited by Donald A. Yerxa, shows just how far things have come since Trevor-Roper overlooked a continent.

Amponsah calls the essays in Recent Themes "thoroughly researched" and "presented in a lively argument and counter-argument" style. The collection contains the work of "outstanding African, Atlantic, and world historians," and the entries touch "on several issues that contribute to a better understanding of Africa’s elusive past." Recent Themes in the History of Africa and the Atlantic World pulls together articles and forums that have appeared in Historically Speaking over the years:

“Beyond Blacks, Bondage, and Blame: Why a Multi-Centric World History Needs Africa: A Forum"
Joseph C. Miller

“The Way of Africa, ‘The Way I Am,’ and the Hermeneutic Circle”
Ricardo Duchesne

“Africa in World History and Historiography”
Patrick Manning

“Comment on Miller”
William H. McNeill

“Finding Africa in World History”
David Northrup

“The Borders of African and World History”
Jonathan T. Reynolds

“What Are World Histories?”
Michael Salman

“Another World”
Ajay Skaria

“Africa in a Multi-Centric World History: Beyond Witches and Warlords”
John K. Thornton

“Multi-Centrism in History: How and Why Perspectives Matter”
Joseph C. Miller

“African Encounters”
David Northrup

“Only Connect: The Rise and Rise (and Fall?) of Atlantic History”
Trevor Burnard

“Does Equiano Still Matter? A Forum”
Vincent Carretta

“Construction of Identity, Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa?”
Paul E. Lovejoy

“Goodbye, Equiano, the African”
Trevor Burnard

“Beyond Equiano”
Jon Sensbach

“Response to Lovejoy, Burnard, and Sensbach”
Vincent Carretta

Amponsah concludes her review by acknowledging, that "Although originally intended as a course companion for students of African and African Diasporic history, world history, and Atlantic history, this book will undoubtedly appeal to the intellectual response of scholars in various academic areas, particularly those interested in race and identity formation. It also holds a real treasure in historical analysis by providing in a single volume not only arguments and counter-arguments, but also opportunity for the proponents of the arguments to respond to the counter-arguments."

See other published and forthcoming titles in the Historians in Conversation series:

Recent Themes in World History and the History of the West, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes on Historians and the Public, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes in Military History: Historians in Conversation, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes in Historical Thinking: Historians in Conversation, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes in the History of Africa and the Atlantic World, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes in the History of Science and Religion, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes in Early American History, Yerxa, ed.
Recent Themes in American Religious History, Stephens, ed.