King John II of Portugal and the Quest for India
G.V. Orange describes how, towards the end of the fifteenth century, Portuguese navigators rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
When Prince Henry the Navigator died in 1460, Portuguese ships had reached Sierra Leone. Thereafter, exploration languished because the Prince left heavy debts, and the King, Afonso V, was obsessed with Morocco and Castile. In 1469, however, the faltering enterprise was leased to a Lisbon merchant, who, within only six years, revealed the entire Guinea coast and advanced as far south as Cape St. Catherine. Gold, pepper, ivory and slaves flowed into Lisbon.
But these trades were too valuable to be left in private hands. In 1474, therefore, Afonso entrusted Portugal’s African affairs to his son John, aged nineteen. After 1475, no one, native or foreigner, might ‘enter, or barter, or trade, or fish’ anywhere in Guinea ‘where trade is now carried on, or is to be in future, on sea or land’ without the Prince’s leave. By the Treaty of Akatovas (1479), Castile acknowledged Portugal’s monopoly, already supported by Papal bulls, everywhere south of Cape Bojador except in the Canaries. When Afonso died in August 1481, the new King was admirably placed to reap the Guinea trades for the Crown and thereby finance the quest for India.
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