Angola

ANGOLA. ) Pedro Alvares Cabral, sailing to India, but steering far west ward to avoid the winds and currents of the Guinea coast, reached Brazil ( I5oo) and claimed it for his sovereign. Joao da Nova dis covered Ascension (1501) and St. , Helena (1502) ; Tristao da Cunha was the first to sight the archipelago still known by his name (1506). In East Africa the small Mohammedan states along the coast—Sofala, Mozambique, Kilwa, Brava, Mombasa, Malindi —either were destroyed or become subjects or allies of Portugal. Pedro de Covilham had reached Abyssinia (q.v.) as early as 149o; in 1 5 20 a Portuguese embassy arrived at the court of "Prester John," and in 1541 a military force was sent to aid him in repell ing a Mohammedan invasion. In the Indian ocean and Arabian sea, one of Cabral's ships discovered Madagascar 0500, which was partly explored by Tristao da Cunha (1507) ; Mauritius was discovered in 1507, Socotra occupied in 1506, and in the same year D. Lourenco de Almeida visited Ceylon. In the Red sea Massawa was the most northerly point frequented by the Portu guese until 1541, when a fleet under Estevao da Gama penetrated as far as Suez. Hormuz, in the Persian gulf, was seized by Alfonso de Albuquerque (I515), who also entered into diplomatic relations with Persia. On the Asiatic mainland the first trading-stations were established by Cabral at Cochin and Calicut (I 5o1) ; more important, however, were the conquest of Goa (I510) and Ma lacca (15I 1) by Albuquerque, and the acquisition of Diu (1535) by Martim Afonso de Sousa, east of Malacca, Albuquerque sent Duarte Fernandes as envoy to Siam (1511), and despatched to the Moluccas two expeditions (1512, 1514), which founded the Portuguese dominion in the Malay archipelago (q.v.). Fernao Pires de Andrade visited Canton in 1517 and opened up trade with China, where in 1557 the Portuguese were permitted to occupy Macao. Japan, accidentally discovered by three Portuguese trad ers in 1542, soon attracted large numbers of merchants and mis sionaries (see JAPAN) . In 1522 one of the ships of Ferdi nand Magellan (q.v.)—a Portuguese sailor, though in the Spanish service—completed the first voyage round the world.

Afonso de Albuquerque

(q.v.), who succeeded Almeida in 1509, modified the policy formulated by his predecessor. Com mand of the sea could not be maintained while the Portuguese fleets were based at Lisbon. In 1510 he seized Goa ; other sea ports and islands were conquered or colonized in rapid succession, and by 154o Portugal had acquired a line of scattered maritime possessions extending along the coasts of Brazil, East and West Africa, Malabar, Ceylon, Persia, Indo-China and the Malay archi pelago. The most important settlements in the East were Goa, Malacca and Hormuz. West of the Cape the settlements in Africa and the Atlantic were governed, as a rule, by officials directly nominated by the king. East of the Cape the royal power was delegated to a viceroy or governor, whose legislative and execu tive authority was almost unlimited during his term of office. The viceroyalty was created in 1505, and from 1511 the Indian capital was Goa. Between 1505 and 158o only four holders of the office Almeida (1505-09), Albuquerque (1509-15), D. Vasco da Gama (1524) and D. Joao de Castro (1545-48)—were men of marked ability and character.

In theory the most lucrative branches of commerce, such as the pepper trade, were monopolies vested in the Crown which the Crown farmed out to individual merchants, or granted trading licences by way of pension. Two great powers, Egypt and Turkey, challenged the naval and commercial supremacy of the Portuguese, hut an Egyptian armada was destroyed by Almeida in 1509, and though Ottoman fleets were on several occasions (as in 1517 and 1521) despatched from Suez or Basra, they failed to achieve any success, and the Portuguese were able to close the two principal trade routes between India and Europe. After the arrival of the Franciscan missionaries, in 1517, Goa gradually became the head quarters of an immense proselytizing organization, which by 1561 had extended to East Africa, China, Japan and the Malay archi pelago, playing an important part in missionary enterprises in the Orient (see GOA, Ecclesiastical History).