A History Of The Philippines Didactic Press Paperbacks

Download or read book A History of the Philippines [Didactic Press Paperbacks] written by David Barrows and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Venice held a monopoly of the only trading-route with the Far East. Some new way of reaching India must be sought, that would permit the traders of other Christian powers to reach the marts of the Orient without passing through Mohammedan lands. This surpassing achievement was accomplished by the Portuguese. So low at the present day has the power of Portugal fallen that few realize the daring and courage once displayed by her seamen and soldiers and the enormous colonial empire that she established.Portugal freed her territory of the Mohammedan Moors nearly a century earlier than Spain; and the vigor and intelligence of a great king, John I., brought Portugal, about the year 1400, to an important place among the states of Europe. This king captured from the Moors the city of Ceuta, in Morocco; and this was the beginning of modern European colonial possessions, and the first bit of land outside of Europe to be held by a European power since the times of the Crusades. King John's youngest son was Prince Henry, famous in history under the title of "the Navigator." This young prince, with something of the same adventurous spirit that filled the Crusaders, was ardent to extend the power of his father's kingdom and to widen the sway of the religion which he devotedly professed. The power of the Mohammedans in the Mediterranean was too great for him hopefully to oppose and so he planned the conquest of the west coast of Africa, and its conversion to Christianity. With these ends in view, he established at Point Sagres, on the southwestern coast of Portugal, a naval academy and observatory. Here he brought together skilled navigators, charts, and geographies, and all scientific knowledge that would assist in his undertaking.He began to construct ships larger and better than any in use. To us they would doubtless seem very clumsy and small, but this was the beginning of ocean ship-building. The compass and the astrolabe, or sextant, the little instrument with which, by calculating the height of the sun above the horizon, we can tell distance from the equator, were just coming into use. These, as well as every other practicable device for navigation known at that time, were supplied to these ships...