The story of Madeira
Content
Pre-Portuguese Era
Pliny mentions the Purple Islands, whose location corresponds to the Happy Islands , or Canaries , which may refer to the islands of Madeira. Plutarch, speaking of the commander Quintus Sertoria , reports that after his return to Cadiz , “he met a sailor who had recently arrived from the Atlantic Islands, two in number, separated by only a small strait, at a distance of 10,000 furlongs from the African coast. They are called Blessed Islands . ”The estimated distance to Africa (2,000 km / 1,250 miles) and the proximity of the two islands make this reference comparable to Madeira and Porto Santo .
There is a romantic legend about two lovers Robert Mashim and Anna d'Arfet during the reign of Edward III , who, fleeing England to France in 1346, lost their course due to a severe storm . Their ship crashed off the coast of the island, possibly Madeira; later, the name of the young man was used in the name of the place Mashiku , in memory of lovers. According to the portulin of 1351 , presented in Florence , Italy , Madeira was discovered long before the Portuguese ships reached it. Precisely Madeira was discovered before the founding of the Portuguese settlement, because it appears on the maps since 1339 . [one]
Portuguese discovery
In 1419, two captains of the Infanta Henry the Mariner - Juan Gonçalves Zarco and Tristan Vas Teixeira - were driven by storm to the island of Porto Santo . They called it that (meaning Holy Port) in gratitude for the salvation from the shipwreck . The following year, an expedition was sent to populate the island, in which two captains, together with another captain Bartalomeu Pereshtrello , included the island in the Portuguese crown.
The islands began to be settled in about 1420-1425 . September 23, 1433 Ilha da Madeira ( Madeira Island or "tree island") first appeared on the map.
Three captains on their first trip left their families on the island, a small group of people of the younger nobility , people with modest savings and several old prisoners. In order to have the slightest development of agriculture, they had to cut down the dense forest of Monteverde and build an extensive network of canals ( levad , because in some parts of the island there was an excess of water, and in some there was a large shortage. In the beginning, fish made up about half of the settlers' food, supplementing vegetables and fruit . The first agricultural success was wheat cultivation. Initially, it was grown by colonists only for their own use, but then it was exported to Portugal.
The discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira was first described by Gomis Janish de Zurara in the Chronica da Descoberta e Conquista da Guiné . [2]
Portuguese Madeira
However, over time, grain production began to decline. To avoid a crisis, Henry the Navigator ordered the cultivation of sugarcane for the production of " sweet salt ", rare in Europe , because of this was considered seasoning .
The increase in the number of sugar plantations in Madeira began in 1455 with the assistance of assistants from Sicily and to a greater extent from Genoa, and continued until the 17th century . Madeira's accessibility attracted Genoese and Flemish merchants seeking to circumvent the Venetian monopoly . “By 1480, Antwerp had about 70 ships involved in the sugar trade with Madeira, with processing concentrated in Antwerp. By the 1490s, Madeira had bypassed Cyprus for the production of sugar ” [3] .
Sugarcane production has become a major factor in the development of the island's economy and has increased the need for labor. Slaves were periodically used on the island for reed cultivation, and by the sixteenth century the share of imported slaves reached 10% of the island's population. [four]
In 1617, Algerian Berber pirates captured 1,200 people in Madeira. [5] In the 18th century , when sugar production rose sharply in Brazil , Sao Tome and Principe and elsewhere, the island became the most important product of wine .
The island was friendly occupied by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars in 1807 , in 1814 was returned to the possession of Portugal [6] .
After the death of Juan VI in 1826, his son Miguel I took power from the real successor, the niece of Mary II, and declared himself the “Absolute King”. Madeira then supported the queen. Miguel sent expeditionary forces, and the island's resistance was broken, and Governor Jose Travassos Valdez was forced to flee to England under the protection of the Royal Navy .
Since the XIX century, the island gains the glory of a resort . Then in Europe only two sea resorts were known - the French Riviera and Madeira. Members of the royal houses, famous writers and politicians rested here.
In 1921, the last Austro-Hungarian Emperor Charles I was deported to Madeira after a second failed coup in Hungary . Here he died a year later and is buried in Monte .
On July 1, 1976 , after the democratic revolution of 1974 , Portugal granted Madeira political autonomy, in honor of which Madeira Day is celebrated. Currently, the island has its own government and legislative assembly.
Notes
- ↑ Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2004), "Machim (supp. Fl. 14th cent.)" , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford: Oxford University Press , DOI 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 17535
- ↑ Russian version: Gomish Ianish di Zurara. Chronicle of the glorious events that occurred during the conquest of Guinea on the orders of the Infanta Don Enrica (Chronicle of the discovery and conquest of Guinea)
- ↑ Ponting, Clive. World history: a new perspective. - London: Chatto & Windus, 2000 .-- P. 482. - ISBN 0-701-16834-X .
- ↑ Godinho, VM Os Descobrimentos ea Economia Mundial , Arcádia, 1965, Volumes 1 and 2, Lisboa
- ↑ " Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800 ." Robert Davis (2004). p.7. ISBN 1-4039-4551-9 .
- ↑ History of the British Empire