Prelude to Empire spotlights and brings into focus the events and developments in European history which prepared the way for Henry the Navigator and the age of the Great Discoveries. "Henry's just fame," writes Bailey W. Diffie, "has obscured an essential fact: in 1415 he was a man with a past as well as a future. Some forty years lay before--some forty centuries lay behind. Just as the voyages of his captains would form the indispensable base for Columbus and Vasco de Gama, so the achievements which made Henry the dominating maritime figure of his time grew from the previous experience...

Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580 was first published in 1977. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

This account traces the history of the Portuguese overseas discoveries, following the expansion into the Atlantic island, the Madeiras, and the Azores. It continues the account with the history of Portuguese discoveries along the African coast, at Guinea, the Congo, and Good Hope, then follows the voyages of...