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What Is Prince Henry's Journey Before American Exploration

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Through venturing the unknown, this journey and adventure could benefit yourself and even the people around you. Prince Henry (the navigator) was born the third son of King John. Around the age of twenty-one, Prince Henry attacked Ceutha in northern Morocco. After this attacks success, he was drawn to explore Africa, an area which most Europeans did not know much about. In about 1418, he founded a school of navigation in Portugal to train those who wanted to sail down to the west of Africa.
Around the year 1420, many sailors dared not to explore past Cape Bojador. This was because of the harsh storms and currents in that area. Not only were there many storms and currents, the sailors that had tried exploring Cape Bojador never returned home …show more content…

Gil Eannes was a Portuguese explorer who was the first European to travel past Cape Bojador and return safely. During his first trip down to Cape Bojador, he landed on a desert near the coast, only to find a few plants, which included “Saint Mary’s roses.” He then brought the plants home to show as proof of traveling the western coast of Africa. About one year later, he journeyed back to Cape Bojador and sailed past it. After passing it, they reached a bay and saw men and camels there. When sailing down, he traveled with another man, collecting seal skins to bring back to Europe to trade. This marked the first commericial load being brought back to Europe from the section of Africa. Besides seal skins being brought to Europe, Prince Henry’s crew also captured some Africans to take back to Portugal. When other sailors returned back to the same spot, they also returned with some more Africans to take back to Portugal. A few years later, at the Bay of Argium, Prince Henry built a fort and the Bay became the center of slave trade. When Prince Henry built this fort at the Bay of Argium, he started what is known today as the transatlantic slave trade. During the transatlantic slave trade, more than thirty-five thousand voyages containing slaves were taken. On these thirty-five thousand or so voyages, more than twelve million Africans were transported from Africa between the Americas, making this one of the biggest forced movement of humans in history. After establishing slave trade, Prince Hnery sent a Venetian navigator by the name of Alvise da Cadamosto on two travels. When the first travel, Cadamosto arrived at the Gambia River. One year later on his second travel, he went from the recently explored Gambia River to the Geba River. When he tried to trade with the Africans settled there, he was

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