Nicole, Thank you for your research. This is the kind of information that puts a perspective on the subject. The phrase - *reduce any non christians to the status of slaves*- is a key to the mindset of the time.
Eric Edgar On 9/4/08, Nicole Rodriques <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I found this time line on a website. I thought it was an interesting > read since it included some things I didn't know (such as the Papal > Bull giving the Portuguese a virtual monopoly on african slaves) > > website: http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm > > excerpt: > 1441 > > * 1441: Start of European slave trading in Africa. The Portuguese > captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão capture 12 Africans in Cabo > Branco (modern Mauritania) and take them to Portugal as slaves. > > 1444 > > * 1444: Lançarote de Freitas, a tax-collector from the Portuguese > town of Lagos, forms a company to trade with Africa. > * 8 August 1444: de Freitas lands 235 kidnapped and enslaved > Africans in Lagos, the first large group of African slaves brought to > Europe. > > 1450 > > 1452 > > * 1452: Start of the 'sugar-slave complex'. Sugar is first planted > in the Portuguese island of Madeira and, for the first time, African > slaves are put to work on the sugar plantations. > * 18 June 1452: Pope Nicholas V issues Dum Diversas, a bull > authorising the Portuguese to reduce any non-Christians to the status > of slaves. > > 1454 > > * 8 January 1454: Pope Nicholas V issues Romanus Pontifex, a bull > granting the Portuguese a perpetual monopoly in trade with Africa. > Nevertheless, Spanish traders begin to bring slaves from Africa to > Spain. > > 1461 > > * 1461: The first of the Portuguese trading forts, the castle at > Arguin (modern Mauritania), is completed. > > 1462 > > * 1462: The Portuguese colony on the Cape Verde Islands is > founded, an important way-station in the slave trade. > * 1462: Portuguese slave traders start to operate in Seville > (Spain) > > 1470 > > * 1470s: Despite Papal opposition, Spanish merchants begin to > trade in large numbers of slaves in the 1470s. > > 1475 > > 1476 > > * 1476: Carlos de Valera of Castille in Spain brings back 400 > slaves from Africa. > > 1481 > > * 1481: A Portuguese embassy to the court of King Edward IV of > England concludes with the English government agreeing not to enter > the slave trade, against the wishes of many English traders. > * 1481-86: Diogo da Azambuja builds the castle at Elmina (modern > Ghana) which was to become the most substantial and the most notorious > of the slave-trading forts in West Africa. > > 1483 > > * 1483: Diogo Cão discovers the Congo river. The region is later a > major source of slaves. > > 1485 > > * 1485: Diogo Cão makes contact with the nation of Kongo and > visits its capital, Mbanza Kongo. He establishes relations between > Portugal and Kongo. > > 1486 > > * 1486: João Afonso Aveiro makes contact with the kingdom and the > city of Benin. > * 1486: Portuguese settle the West African island of São Tomé. > This uninhabited West African island is planted with sugar and > populated by African slaves by the Portuguese. The settlement thus > extended and developed the sugar-slave complex that had been initiated > in Madeira. > > 1487 > > * 1487-88: Bartolomeo Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope and > explores the Indian Ocean and the East African coast. > > 1492 > > * 2 January 1492: The Moorish town of Granada surrenders to the > Spanish forces of the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, marking > the end of La Reconquista, the war between Moors and Spaniards in the > Iberian peninsular. Both sides retain many slaves taken during the > course of the war. > * 12 October 1492: Christopher Columbus becomes the first European > since the Viking era to discover the New World, setting foot on an > unidentified island he named San Salvador (modern Bahamas). > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
