Western Europeans, beginning with the Portuguese, have…

1419 CE

Western Europeans, beginning with the Portuguese, have begun to venture into the Atlantic Ocean, down the African coast and to the west.

Prince Henry, the third surviving son of Portuguese monarch John, was born in 1394 in Porto, probably when the royal couple was living in the city's old mint, now called Casa do Infante (Prince's House).

He was the third son born to Philippa of Lancaster, the sister of King Henry IV of England.

Henry was 21 when he, his father and brothers captured the Moorish port of Ceuta in northern Morocco, that had long been a base for Barbary pirates who raided the Portuguese coast, depopulating villages by capturing their inhabitants to be sold in the African slave market.

Following this success, Henry had started to explore the coast of Africa, most of which is unknown to Europeans.

His objectives include finding the source of the West African gold trade and the legendary Christian kingdom of Prester John, and stopping the pirate attacks on the Portuguese coast.

At this time, the ships of the Mediterranean are too slow and too heavy to make these voyages.

Under his direction, a new and much lighter ship is developed, the caravel, which can sail further and faster.

In 1419, Henry's father appoints him governor of the province of the Algarve.

In the course of an expedition sponsored by Henry, the Portuguese mariners come upon an uninhabited volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean 400 miles west of Morocco, previously explored by the ancient Phoenicians and the contemporary Genoese.

Much like the Azores, which will be officially discovered by Henry’s mariners in 1427, it is clear that some knowledge of Atlantic islands, such as Madeira, existed before the discovery and settlement of these lands, as the islands appear on maps as early as 1339.

From a portolan dating to 1351, and preserved in Florence, Italy, it would appear that the islands of Madeira had been discovered long before Portuguese vessels rediscovered them in the "official" timeline.

In Libro del Conocimiento (1348–1349), a Spanish monk also identified the location of the islands in its present location, with the names Leiname, Diserta and Puerto Santo.

Officially, in 1418, two captains under service to Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, had ben driven off-course by a storm to an island which they named Porto Santo (English: holy harbor); the name was bestowed for their gratitude and divine deliverance from a possible shipwreck by the protected anchorage.

The following year, an organized expedition, under the captaincy of Zarco and Vaz Teixeira, is sent to this new land, and along with captain Bartolomeu Perestrello, to take possession of the island on behalf of the Portuguese crown.

Subsequently, the new settlers observe "a heavy black cloud suspended to the southwest", which when investigated leads to the discovery of the larger island of Madeira, a mountainous island with a subtropical climate suitable for sugarcane cultivation.

The archipelago’s two smaller islands are named Desertas and Selvagens.