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Henry the Navigator
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Medieval illuminated portrait of Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal, wearing a black hat and red robe, framed by an ornate floral border. Map of the western coast of Africa and nearby Atlantic islands, highlighting areas reached by explorers sponsored by Henry the Navigator in the early to mid-1400s. Red text marks key exploration sites and dates, including Porto Santo, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Bojador, Cape Verde, and several locations along the West African coast.
Study the history of the African slave trade and its economic effect on western Africa, where coastal states became rich and powerful while savanna states were destabilized as their people were taken captive
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Medieval illuminated portrait of Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal, wearing a black hat and red robe, framed by an ornate floral border.
Henry the Navigator Henry the Navigator.

Henry the Navigator

prince of Portugal
Also known as: Henrique o Navegador, Henrique, infante de Portugal, duque de Viseu, senhor da Covilhã(Show More)
Written by
Charles E. Nowell
Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Author of The Great Discoveries and the First Colonial Empires and others.
Charles E. NowellAll
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Henry the Navigator (born March 4, 1394, Porto, Portugal—died November 13, 1460, Vila do Infante, near Sagres) was a Portuguese prince noted for his patronage of voyages of discovery among the Madeira Islands and along the western coast of Africa. The epithet Navigator, applied to him by the English (though seldom by Portuguese writers), is a misnomer, as he himself never embarked on any exploratory voyages. Henry was the third son of King John I...

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