Gold, Sugar, Ships… and People

A Trans-Atlantic Timeline, 1400-1900

Before 1400

1238
Muslims Surrender Valencia
A Christian army under Jaime I, who has already taken the Balearic Islands, captures Valencia from Moorish rulers, completing the kingdom of Aragon’s portion of the Reconquista of Iberia (al-Andalus to the Arabs).
     Most of central and southern Iberia (present-day Spain and Portugal) had been under Muslim rule since the invasion of 711-716 and defeat of a Christian Visigoth king by a Berber army sent by the Arab Umayyad Caliphate. 
     Maure, Moors and Berbers: Peoples who today call themselves the Amazigh still live in western North Africa (largely present-day Morocco and northwest Algeria). One of their ancient tribes were the Maure and “Mauretania” was applied to a kingdom between the Atlas mountains and the Mediterranean, a name Romans kept when making it a province. The Amazigh were overwhelmed by the Umayyad conquest of the late 7th century, converted to Islam and dubbed “Berbers” by the Arabs. Iberian Christians continued to identify Amazigh people as “Maure,” which evolved into “Moors.” Christians soon extended that to apply to Arabs as well and, through centuries of conflict, to other Muslims.
     The term “Saracen” was also applied by Christians to Arab Muslims, particularly toward the Holy Land, and less often to Turkish Muslims; the latter were rarely referred to as “Moors.”

1244
Crusaders Vanquished
Jerusalem, briefly won by the Sixth Crusade (the First Crusade was launched 150 years earlier), falls to mercenary Central Asian horsemen who sack the city and massacre much of the population, August. Crusaders, mainly Franks, lose again at Battle of La Forbie, October, to Egyptian Mamluks, despite having an ally in the Muslim Ayyubid sultan. More than 5,000 Crusaders die, including virtually all of the knightly orders.
Several more Crusades will follow, and Christian-Muslim wars will continue from one end of the Mediterranean to the other for centuries, but Christian power is never restored to the Holy Land.

1249
Portugal Ends Muslim Rule
Portuguese, under King Afonso III, capture Faro, the last Muslim stronghold in the Algarve, completing the Christian reconquest of Portugal.
This leaves only the Emirate of Granada as a Muslim bastion in Iberia. For the next 240 years, that emirate will alternate between bloody warfare with Castile and paying vassal tribute with African gold, while maintaining its Muslim identity and self-rule.
It won’t be until 1492, under Isabella and Fernando, that Castile completes the Reconquista of the entire peninsula with the surrender of Granada’s last emir.

1260
Mongols Turned Back
An army of Egyptian Mamluks stops Mongol forces in Syria after the latter have conquered Persia, destroyed Baghdad and ended the Abbasid Caliphate in Damascus.
It’s the high-water mark of Mongol expansion across Asia that began with Genghis Khan early in the century.

1291
Into the Atlantic
Brothers Ugolino and Vandino Vivaldi set out from Genoa in May with two galleys to attempt a voyage into the Atlantic and around Africa to India. They are believed to have reached Cape Nun (in present-day Morocco), according to an annal of the day. But they and their crews are never heard from again.
It is believed to be the first European attempt since Roman times to explore far beyond the Strait of Gibraltar.

1298
Marco Polo’s Asian Adventures
Livres des Merveilles du Monde, better known as The Travels of Marco Polo, appears in Italy describing Polo’s Silk Road journey to Cathay (China), long service to Kublai Kahn, the Mongol emperor, and return with his father and uncle to Venice after 24 years in Asia (1271-1295).
The book introduces an amazed Europe to Asia in detail, and inspires generations to venture to central and eastern Asia, not least Christopher Columbus who filled his copy with handwritten notes.

1312
The Canaries Rediscovered
Lancelotto Malocello, also a Genoese, ventures into the Atlantic, possibly in search of the Vivaldi brothers. If so, he does not find them, but does encounter the northernmost Canary island, which will be named Lanzarote for him.
This is a rediscovery, for the Canaries were known to the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans (Pliney the Elder wrote that they were named for packs of large dogs on Gran Canaria).
The islands, which begin 62 miles off Cape Juby (well south of Cape Nun), are inhabited by the Guanche people who probably arrived in the first millennium BC. Genetically, they share ancestry with the Berbers of North Africa; they also use a script similar to the Berbers’ Numidian script.
Malocello builds a stone fort and lives in relative peace with the Guanche until they expel him around 1332.

1315-1317
Famine in Northern Europe
Constant rainy weather in the spring of 1315 leads to crop failures; cattle disease kills as much as 80% of cattle and sheep. A severe winter and another cold spring follow. Peasants eat their seed grain, slaughter work animals, even abandon children. Pneumonia and tuberculosis overwhelm the starving. Millions die, more than 10% of the population of northern France, southern England and the Low Countries.
Crime and violence surge, war is waged far more brutally. Confidence in the church and in kings plummets. Three centuries of population growth end, with no recovery before 1322. And worse is to come with the Black Death.

1341
Exploring Gran Canaria
Nicoloso da Recco, yet another Genoese, leads an expedition to Gran Canaria on behalf of Portugal’s King Afonso IV. Da Recco studies the Guanche and their language and maps more of the island chain.
In 1350, priests from Majorca establish a mission, probably on Gran Canaria, that co-exists with Guanche until 1400 at least.

1347
Plague Sweeps into Europe
Now believed to have originated in present-day Kyrgyzstan in late 1330s, the Black Death sweeps across Asia, north Africa and Europe, killing as many millions by 1351, history’s most deadly pandemic.
First noted in Crimea, it is brought to Messina, Sicily, by Genoese galleys manned by dying sailors in October. In Europe, as many as 20 million people die, perhaps a third of the continent’s population, previously reduced by famine. London, Paris, Florence suffer death rates of 50% to 60%, with mass burials.
Jews are frequently, hysterically accused of poisoning wells; thousands are massacred in Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Mainz and Cologne, and many thousands more flee to the welcoming arms of Poland’s Casimir III.
Cause: The Yersinia pestis bacterium is harbored in rats. Fleas feeding on rats spread the bacterium to humans by their bite. Large, dark “bubos” bulge from the lymph system, followed by fever, vomiting, diarrhea and significant pain. The human immune system is overwhelmed; death comes within hours in the medieval outbreak. People also spread the bacterium by coughing and wheezing (pneumonic plague). None of the science is understood at the time.

1350
Black Death at Gibraltar
The plague kills Castile’s Alfonso XI and much of his army, forcing them to lift siege of Gibraltar, a factor in delaying final Reconquista for more than 140 years.
Gibraltar: Name is derived from Jabal Ṭāriq (“Mountain of Ṭāriq”). Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād was the Arab name for the Berber commander who launched the Muslim conquest of Iberia when his army landed nearby in 711.

1394
Portugal’s ‘Navigator’ Born
Prince Henrique is born in Porto, March 4. He is the third son of King João I and Philippa of Lancaster, a granddaughter of England’s Edward III. Henrique, to become known in English as Henry the Navigator, will direct Portugal’s Atlantic explorations for decades.

1390s
A Better Sugar Press
New, improved sugar press doubles volume of juice squeezed from cane, bringing down sugar’s very high price, previously equal to expensive spices from the East. 
Refining of sugar cane into syrup and granules was developed in India 2,000 years ago. Sugar was introduced to Europe by Arab and Venetian traders, and by early Crusaders. In the Mediterranean, it was first cultivated by Muslims on Cyprus in the 10th century, and then on Sicily and in Andalusia. Slaves from the Black Sea were brought to Cyprus for the work.
Before sugar, honey was the only sweetener available to most peoples.

1400

1402
Europeans Seize a Canary
Lanzarote is the first Canary island to be taken and held by a European expedition, in this case led by Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, Frenchmen, nominally on behalf of Henrique III of Castile. Followed by conquest of the islands of Fuerteventura and El Hierro, 1405, with some Guanche natives sold as slaves.

1415
Ceuta and Gold
Portugal’s young Prince Henrique leads siege and seizure of Ceuta (Moroccan coast, opposite Gibraltar) to stop Muslim raids on Portuguese coast villages; pirates would hold Christian captives for ransom or sell them into slavery.
Henrique’s later explorations from his base at Lagos are spurred in part by religious fervor to connect with Christian empire led by the mythical Prester John in the East and to ally with him to defeat Muslims.
But equally important is Henrique’s curiosity about trans-Saharan camel caravans that bring gold, ivory and black slaves to Morocco. (The most important return product is rock salt from Saharan mines, essential for preserving food.)
It is the gold, recovered from the streams and estuaries of what becomes  known as the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana) at a rate later estimated to be as much as two tons annually, that most excites the Portuguese.

1417
Financing the Navigators
Henrique is named grandmaster of Order of Christ (the Templars before 1312) by pope at request of Henrique’s father, João I. The Order is then granted sovereign rights and a percent of revenue (including slave revenue) from new discoveries and thus develops into financial engine for Henrique’s explorations.
He expands the systematic study and record-keeping of Atlantic winds and currents that will guarantee Portugal’s lead in ocean exploration for at least 200 years.

1419
Madeira Discovered
Madeira’s smaller, neighbor island of Porto Santo visited by João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, two of Henrique’s captains, when they are blown off course. Settlement of uninhabited Madeira (660 miles southwest of Lisbon) begins in 1420.
Much of the laurasilva (laurel forest) is burned off to make way for agriculture. Later, Henrique experiments with vineyards and sugar cane from Sicily. Early slaves are probably North African Moors (either Berber or Arab) seized by the Portuguese in war.

1430s
Caravels Set Sail
Caravels are developed by Henrique, based on Portuguese fishing barcas, which in turn are based on medieval Arab qarib. Lateen sails allow ships to sail into the wind. Some also carry square sails for faster travel before the wind. They are light, displacing only 50-160 tons, and of shallow draft with two or three masts.
Carracks (nauses), developed soon after, are able to carry much more cargo, and often exceed 1,000 tons, with two square-rigged masts and a lateen mizzenmast.

1432
Portuguese Gain Azores
Led by Gonçalo Velho Cabral, Portuguese land on Santa Maria in the uninhabited, mid-Atlantic Azores, 850 miles west of Lisbon. An earlier “rediscovery” of Azores was reported by Diogo de Silves around 1427. Some 14th-century maps appear to include islands but without explanation of their discovery.
São Miguel, Terceira, Faial and Pico are settled by 1440. Last of the nine main islands (which stretch west more than 370 miles) to be discovered are Corvo and Flores in 1452.
Most Azores settlers are peasants from the Algarve and Alentejo, including a number of Jews. Another contingent comes from Flanders. All work on land granted by Henrique to donatarios (usually his captains, Cabral is the first) who have full governor powers. Early use of slaves ends due to settlers’ fear of insurrections. A tenant-farming system develops instead.

1434
Canary Enslavement Condemned
Pope Eugene IV orders excommunication of any person who enslaves any Guanche newly converted to Christianity on the Canary Islands, where Portuguese, particularly, conduct slave raids. In 1435, pope orders wrongly enslaved Christians to be freed within 15 days. But enslavement of non-baptized Guanche is protected under a third bull issued the following year.

1434
Rounding Cape Bojador
Portugal’s Gil Eanes is first to round Africa’s Cape Bojador, due south of Canaries’ Fuerteventura, after many failures and wrecks. Bojador is long feared for tricky northeast winds, extended reefs and insistent southerly coastal current. Also feared for sea monsters beyond.

1437
Portugal Stopped at Tangier
Portuguese, led by Henrique, besiege Tangier. But his army is in turn encircled by Moroccans and forced to surrender. Henrique promises to return Ceuta to Moroccans if he can keep his army, minus hostages who include his younger brother Fernão.
When Henrique’s offer to take Ferdinand’s place is denied by King Duarte (older brother of Henrique and Fernão), Henrique and ministers renege on return of Ceuta; Duarte dies of plague soon after; Fernão dies in captivity, 1443.

1441
Slave Trade Beginnings
Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão, sailing in early caravels, capture 12 persons identified as “Moors” at Cape Blanc (present-day Mauritania) and take them to Lagos as slaves. They are Muslims, probably of Berber origin. Cited as the beginning of West Africa-Europe slave trade.

1444
More Slaves to Lagos
First large group of non-Mediterranean African slaves brought to Europe.
Lançarote de Freitas, the Lagos port collector, wins Henrique’s permission to follow up on Gonçalves-Tristão expedition. With six ships and relatively few men, he rounds Cape Blanc and raids two islands in Bay of Arguin. Some 235 people (again, probably Muslim Berbers) are taken as slaves to Lagos; Henrique’s share is 46 slaves which he distributes among captains.

1445
Rounding Cape Verde
Dinis Dias is the first Portuguese captain to round Cape Verde (at present-day Dakar), 500 miles south of Cape Blanc. Takes four captives, possibly non-Muslim black people.
It will turn out that Cape Verde is the westernmost point of the entire African continent. Also, Dias is too close to mainland to spot the Cape Verde Islands, another 350 miles to the west.

1445
Early Slave ‘Factory’
De Freitas, accompanied by Dias, returns to Bay of Arguin with 14 ships, and manages to capture 125 “Moors” and to set up the first permanent European post on Arguin island. Within 10 years, this feitoria (factory) is sending 800 slaves annually to Lagos.
But when De Freitas ventures south to Senegal river, he is rebuffed by fierce black Wolof villagers.

1446
Henrique Suspends Explorations
Explorations Nuno Tristão ventures on his fourth voyage, but is ambushed and killed somewhere between Cape Verde and the Gambia river. When a succeeding expedition led by Álvaro Fernandes provokes more hostilities, Henrique suspends explorations along West African coast for more than eight years.

1447
A Canaries Conquistador
In the Canaries, Hernán Peraza the Elder, a Seville noble, arrives on Fuerteventura (his by marriage) to assert his (and Castilian) control of Lanzarote, El Hierro and La Gomera, and to plan conquest of islands still fiercely defended by Guanche: La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
When he dies in 1452, his daughter Inéz declares herself “Queen of the Canary Islands.”

Go to Trans-Atlantic Timeline for the pdf of the complete Timeline through to 1900.