Prologue
"Oh, salty sea, how much of your salt
Are tears from Portugal!
For having crossed you, how many mothers cried,
How many sons have in vain prayed!
How many wifes never married
For you to be ours, oh sea!
Was it worth it? Everything is worthwhile
If you don't have little soul.
He who wants to sail away from the Bojador
Also has to sail away from pain.
God to the sea danger and abyss gave
But the skies reflected on him."
(Fernando Pessoa)
Lisboa, 31th December, 1418 A.D.
This is an unique moment for our nation, Your Majesty. Long time ago we expelled those hatefull and ifidel moors from the lands of our beloved Lusitanian country. Yes, they stayed here for a long time, but more than two hundred years ago we expelled them. You know it all very well, because you've been king for almost fourty years!
We have an unique position and situation here in western Europe. Look: the English and the Francs are at war since the beginning of last century! The german cities always fight each other, and so do the italian cities; even our beloved pope does so! Our blood-brothers in Castille are still fighting the moors - thanks God we aren't! Our blood-brothers in Aragon are always in trouble within the italian cities. The former vikings, the scandinavians don't stop fighting the russian cities and the german cities. Those hated turks are in trouble with the balkan states, the independent turkish states who got freedom after their civil war, and the cities of Venice and Constantinople, who still calls themselves as The Byzantine Empire, or even The Roman Empire!
Although at peace, my lord, we didn't sleep. We helped our fisherman to improve their fishing navy, and they started to go further and further into the sea. Hunting fish, they discovered the archipelago of Azores, very far away from our coast, and the Canarian Islands, near the african coast. Unfortunatelly, we had to give the Canarian to the castillans, but we have found a new colony in The Azores, the village of Angra do Heroísmo. And we produce sugar cane there, an appreciated good that comes from the Indies and are traded at high price by the Venetians!
It seems, Your Majesty, that everything produced in the Indies can be sold at high price here in Europe! We'd better produce them, or buy at lower price and sell it here. You know what I talk about: sugar, spice, coffee and so on!
But what do we have? We're a poor country with only the sea bordering us. If we want the Indies, we need to conquer the sea! Let's find a route to the Indies by the sea! Let's improve our navy!
Our expansion and conquest has already started. We are at war with the moors in thieir own homeland, the so-called sultanate of Morroco. Our spies grabbed the information that they know the path to the Indies. We shall teach them a lesson! General Pereira has already started the Holy War...
"Oh, salty sea, how much of your salt
Are tears from Portugal!
For having crossed you, how many mothers cried,
How many sons have in vain prayed!
How many wifes never married
For you to be ours, oh sea!
Was it worth it? Everything is worthwhile
If you don't have little soul.
He who wants to sail away from the Bojador
Also has to sail away from pain.
God to the sea danger and abyss gave
But the skies reflected on him."
(Fernando Pessoa)
Lisboa, 31th December, 1418 A.D.
This is an unique moment for our nation, Your Majesty. Long time ago we expelled those hatefull and ifidel moors from the lands of our beloved Lusitanian country. Yes, they stayed here for a long time, but more than two hundred years ago we expelled them. You know it all very well, because you've been king for almost fourty years!
We have an unique position and situation here in western Europe. Look: the English and the Francs are at war since the beginning of last century! The german cities always fight each other, and so do the italian cities; even our beloved pope does so! Our blood-brothers in Castille are still fighting the moors - thanks God we aren't! Our blood-brothers in Aragon are always in trouble within the italian cities. The former vikings, the scandinavians don't stop fighting the russian cities and the german cities. Those hated turks are in trouble with the balkan states, the independent turkish states who got freedom after their civil war, and the cities of Venice and Constantinople, who still calls themselves as The Byzantine Empire, or even The Roman Empire!
Although at peace, my lord, we didn't sleep. We helped our fisherman to improve their fishing navy, and they started to go further and further into the sea. Hunting fish, they discovered the archipelago of Azores, very far away from our coast, and the Canarian Islands, near the african coast. Unfortunatelly, we had to give the Canarian to the castillans, but we have found a new colony in The Azores, the village of Angra do Heroísmo. And we produce sugar cane there, an appreciated good that comes from the Indies and are traded at high price by the Venetians!
It seems, Your Majesty, that everything produced in the Indies can be sold at high price here in Europe! We'd better produce them, or buy at lower price and sell it here. You know what I talk about: sugar, spice, coffee and so on!
But what do we have? We're a poor country with only the sea bordering us. If we want the Indies, we need to conquer the sea! Let's find a route to the Indies by the sea! Let's improve our navy!
Our expansion and conquest has already started. We are at war with the moors in thieir own homeland, the so-called sultanate of Morroco. Our spies grabbed the information that they know the path to the Indies. We shall teach them a lesson! General Pereira has already started the Holy War...
