Portuguese Political Consolidation, Trade, and Expansion to Africa (1300 - 1520) (jan 1, 1300 – jan 1, 1520)

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Moors - Muslim occupants of North Africa, Western Sahara, and the Iberian Peninsula.

After the Portuguese took the Moorish Moroccan fortresses at Ceuta (in North Africa) they continued to conquer their neighbors, the Castilians, while under the command of João I (r. 1385-1433). After their two victories, the Portuguese continued to sail southward along Africa.

João's son, Prince Henrique ("Henry the Navigator"), then continued the family's domain and sailed down the coast of Africa and offshore to the Atlantic islands of the Madeiras and the Azores. The west and central coasts of Africa and the islands of the North and South Atlantic, including the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé, Principe, and Fernando Po, soon became the Portuguese ports of call.

Then the Portuguese monarchs granted the Atlantic islands to nobles as hereditary possessions on condition that they grantees colonize them which enabled the Portuguese to thrive during the Black Death.

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