Australia's Portuguese discovery theory

Australia's Portuguese discovery theory is Australia 's most well-founded alternative discovery theory. It claims that before Willem Janszon , the first of the Europeans to report an exploration of Australia in 1606 , the continent was explored by Portuguese sailors. In addition to the Portuguese, some theories ascribe the primacy of the discovery of the continent to the French ^[1] and the Spaniards ^[2] .

Content

Theory content

The east coast of Jav-La-Grand in the atlas of Nicolas Vallard in 1547 . Reproduced from a copy of 1847 , National Library of Australia .

The theory of the discovery of Australia by the Portuguese between 1521 and 1524 is based on the following theses ^[3] ^[4] :

The existence of a large land, called Jave La Grande ( French: Jave La Grande ), is shown on a number of French maps of the mid-16th century, the so-called Dieppe maps , where this land is located south of modern Indonesia. Geographical names relating to this land are given in French, Portuguese, as well as in the French transmission of Portuguese. Some of the names can be interpreted as transmitting the real geography of the northwestern and eastern coasts of Australia.
The Portuguese from the beginning of the XVI century constantly swam to Southeast Asia. In particular, in the years 1513 - 1516 they explored and colonized Timor , lying less than 500 kilometers off the coast of Australia.
Some archaeological finds on the coasts of Australia and New Zealand have not received a satisfactory explanation and may be associated with the early voyages of Europeans to the shores of Australia.

Australia's discovery theory on a commemorative Portuguese coin of 200 escudos .

Cristovan de Mendons

In 1509, the Portuguese flotilla Diogo Lopisa de Siqueira reached the Moluccas, and a few years later the Portuguese settled there and, having built a number of trading posts, began sending expeditions to the south and east of Molucca. According to some historians, one of such expeditions under the command of Cristovan de Mendonza in 1522 visited the northwestern coast of Australia.

Archaeological data

In 1916, guns of the 16th century, presumably of Portuguese manufacture, were found on the west coast of Australia.

Some researchers associate with the Portuguese the appearance in New Zealand of the so-called. The Tamil Bell .

Notes

↑ The discovery of Australia is attributed to the Frenchman Bino Polmieux before Gonneville ( Fr. Binot Paulmier de Gonneville , 1504 ) in the book Brosses, Charles de. Histoire des navigations aux Terres Australe. - Paris, 1756.
↑ At the beginning of the 20th century, Lawrence Hargraves concluded on the basis of archaeological evidence that Spain established a colony in the Bay of Botany in the 16th century.
↑ Tweeddale, A. “More on Maps” in The Skeptic , Vol 20, No. 3 2000 1 p. 58-62 https://web.archive.org/web/20060824173541/http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/2000/3.pdf
↑ Richardson, WAR “The Portuguese Discovery of Australia, Fact or Fiction?” A lecture delivered at the National Library of Australia, Occasional Lecture Series Number 3, National Library of Australia, 1989, ISBN 0-642-10481-6 . p.6

[Brosses_note-1] The discovery of Australia is attributed to the Frenchman Bino Polmieux before Gonneville ( Fr. Binot Paulmier de Gonneville , 1504 ) in the book Brosses, Charles de. Histoire des navigations aux Terres Australe. - Paris, 1756.

[Hargraves-2] At the beginning of the 20th century, Lawrence Hargraves concluded on the basis of archaeological evidence that Spain established a colony in the Bay of Botany in the 16th century.

[3] Tweeddale, A. “More on Maps” in The Skeptic , Vol 20, No. 3 2000 1 p. 58-62 https://web.archive.org/web/20060824173541/http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/2000/3.pdf

[4] Richardson, WAR “The Portuguese Discovery of Australia, Fact or Fiction?” A lecture delivered at the National Library of Australia, Occasional Lecture Series Number 3, National Library of Australia, 1989, ISBN 0-642-10481-6 . p.6