![]() ![]() The Portuguese were part of the Reconquista effort through all these years, and their greatest adversary was the Muslim fleet of corsairs in the Atlantic Ocean. Prince Henry kept pushing them and commissioning new voyages until finally the first cape was rounded, then the second…and then they realized there was no real reason not to keep going. ![]() Each cape-beyond which land could not be seen until you actually rounded the cape in person-was a limit that captains believed they could not cross without grave danger. Portuguese ships had been working on this goal for much of the 15th century, pushed in early stages by Prince Henry “the Navigator.” He did not actually sail, but he used his influence and money to get ships to sail incrementally farther down the coast of Africa. In 1498, Vasco de Gama landed a Portuguese ship at Calicut, the same harbor where Ibn Battuta had been so vexed over reaching China. ![]() If someone could find another route to China and India, the economic power of the Ottoman and Persian Empires would be reduced. Goods from China and India were so different from what could be found and made in Europe that they had always commanded very high prices-and those transportation fees were a big part of the price. ![]() This was literally a road in some places, with oases and cities along the way to support travelers’ needs for a fee. The biggest source of financial power the Muslim Empire had always came from controlling large parts, if not all, of the Silk Road. ![]()
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