History of Portugal (1419-1499)
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Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves Reino de Portugal e dos Algarves
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| 1415–1580 | |||||||||
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| Capital | Lisbon | ||||||||
| Common languages | Galician-Portuguese, Early Modern Portuguese | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute Monarchy | ||||||||
| Monarch | |||||||||
• 1415–1433 |
João I (first) | ||||||||
• 1578–1580 |
Henrique I (last) | ||||||||
| 14 August 1415 | |||||||||
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4 August 1578 | ||||||||
| 31 January 1580 | |||||||||
| Currency | Portuguese dinheiro, Portuguese real | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | PT | ||||||||
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The Kingdom of Portugal in the 15th century was the first European power to begin building a colonial empire. The Portuguese Renaissance was a period of exploration during which Portuguese sailors discovered several Atlantic archipelagos like the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde, explored and colonized the African coast, discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, explored the Indian Ocean and established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, and sent the first direct European maritime trade and diplomatic missions to Ming China and to Japan.
The Portuguese Renaissance produced a plethora of poets, historians, critics, theologians, and moralists, for whom the Portuguese Renaissance was their golden age. The Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende (printed 1516) is taken to mark the transition from Old Portuguese to the modern Portuguese language.
John I of Portugal acceded in 1390 and ruled in peace, pursuing the economic development of his realm. The only significant military action was the siege and conquest of the city of Ceuta in 1415. By this step he aimed to control navigation of the African coast. But in the broader perspective, this was the first step opening the Arab world to medieval Europe, which in fact led to the Age of Discovery with Portuguese explorers sailing across the whole world.
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