Focusing on Portuguese investment immigration, listen to the stories and legends of Portugal: the maritime adventurous spirit of Europeans in the late Middle Ages.
There are many facts that illustrate the strong maritime spirit of Western Europeans during the Middle Ages. In 1291, the Genoese brothers Vivaldi sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean with two ships, reportedly aiming to reach India by sea, but they disappeared without a trace thereafter. In 1344, the Genoese authorities issued a decree prohibiting adventures to Sicily and Mallorca without armed protection, indicating that there were quite a few cases of Genoese adventurers going missing in unknown seas at that time. Thanks to these explorations, by the late 13th century and the 15th century, Europeans gradually discovered or rediscovered the Madeira, Canary, Azores, and Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic, becoming familiar with about 2/5 of the sea routes between Europe and the Americas. In the second half of the 15th century, frequent trade occurred between the main islands of these archipelagos, the West African coast, and the ports along the English Channel and the North Sea, which contemporary Western scholars refer to as the "Atlantic Mediterranean." In other words, during the 14th and 15th centuries, the maritime activity range of Western Europeans expanded to the size of a Mediterranean, which became the first overseas colonies they established and a frontier for new colonial development.
In 1476, Columbus arrived in Portugal due to a shipwreck, married the daughter of the former governor of the island of Porto Santo, and received much assistance from Genoese in Lisbon, allowing him to navigate widely across the ocean. He utilized the materials left by his father-in-law and his own sailing experience to master the navigation techniques of the Atlantic, making him a product of the maritime culture of Western Europe, particularly Lisbon.
The ruling class's attention to the ocean was beyond imagination.
Since the late Middle Ages, the extent to which kings and the church in Western Europe were involved in maritime activities is now hard to imagine. Kings liked expansion, as it not only increased royal wealth and expanded their territories but also served as a good way to resolve domestic conflicts. Kings in Western Europe were always curious about distant countries. In 1508, the Portuguese king instructed his envoy to Malacca, Sequeira, with the following words: "You must ask the Chinese when they come to Malacca or their trading places, where they come from, whether it is far, what goods they trade, how many ships come here each year, what their ships look like, whether they will return home this year, whether there are merchants in Malacca... Are they cowards or warriors, do they have weapons or artillery, and what kind of clothes do they wear, are they of great stature... What customs do they follow, how far do their borders extend, and who are their neighbors?" If the emperor of China knew about such matters, he would surely find it very strange.
The church was keen on mediating the conflicts arising from maritime colonization among Western European countries. In 1494, the Pope mediated the conflict between Spain and Portugal, delineating the Papal Line of Demarcation, and after 1529, helped these two countries sign the first treaty for the division of the world among Westerners, namely the Treaty of Zaragoza. However, both England and France scoffed at such treaties. In 1496, King Henry VII of England issued a license to Cabot and his three sons, allowing them to "sail to all places and regions, to the coasts of the East Sea, West Sea, and North Sea... in order to seek, discover, and explore all islands, lands, nations, and regions unknown to the Christian world to this day." King Francis I of France said, "The sun shines on me as it does on others; I would very much like to see which clause in Adam's will deprives me of my right to share the world." He also stated that God did not create these lands solely for the Spaniards.
Equally noteworthy is the enthusiasm of intellectuals and high-ranking clergy for maritime activities. In 1410, Cardinal D'Ailly wrote "The Shape of the World," stating that the Earth is round. In the late 15th century, Pope Pius II published "Natural History." In 1474, the Florentine geographer Toscanelli wrote to Columbus, stating that sailing west would surely reach the East, and also mentioned that the roofs of the palaces in Japan were made of gold. Columbus made many annotations in the aforementioned books (including "The Travels of Marco Polo" and others), which still exist in relevant libraries in Spain.
The unified pursuit of the nation and its reasons.
Why were European countries so enthusiastic about maritime expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries? Was it because their productivity was particularly advanced at that time? Probably not; many renowned contemporary Western scholars believe that in the 15th century, the Western economy lagged behind that of China. The overseas expansion of Westerners was mainly due to their system. Here, two main points are discussed:
1. The social relations of medieval Europe had a characteristic that was somewhat different from the feudal society of China, namely that the rights and obligations between various classes or strata were relatively fixed. In this situation, for any class or stratum to gain additional benefits, a relatively good choice was to expand outward. As early as 1336, the Portuguese government initiated an expedition to the Canary Islands to acquire new territories. By the 15th century, overseas adventures had become a national consensus among the Portuguese. Portuguese historian Saraiva pointed out that in the early 15th century, the domestic conditions in Portugal created a great opportunity for expansion. Through expansion, both common people and nobles could acquire new lands, the church could expand its territory, merchants could enlarge their markets, and kings could enhance their prestige, stabilize their rule, and increase their revenue. In short, overseas expansion benefited everyone; otherwise, everyone would feel that life was difficult. The situation in all of Western Europe was similar.
2. There existed a competitive relationship among various countries and cities in medieval Europe, which fostered the competitive and adventurous spirit of merchants and artisans, making medieval Western European society vibrant. In the late 15th century, Western Europeans accelerated their development towards the Atlantic due to two reasons: one was this competitive system; the other was the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, which posed a significant threat to Christian Western Europe, causing Western Europeans to lose the possibility of expanding eastward and forcing them to develop towards the ocean.
It can be said that the Age of Discovery was a product of such a "national pursuit." Here, the competitive system is the foundation, while the westward advance of the Ottomans reinforced the motivation for Western Europeans to develop towards the ocean.