Why was Portugal at the forefront of early European exploration?

Question

That's all folks.

Answer 1

~As opposed to the the Italians, Spanish, Dutch, English and French? One of us must have missed something.

Answer 2

Prince Henry the Navigator. Although he was called Prince Henry the Navigator by the English, Prince Henry never actually sailed on any of the voyages of discovery he sponsored. Instead, Prince Henry established a school for the study of the arts of navigation, mapmaking, and shipbuilding.

The Portuguese were the most advanced of the Europeans in Navigation. They designed a route going around the bottom of Africa to reach India. They kept going furtherout each time to get the currents to "slingshot" them around. In 1500,Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered what is now known as Brazil. That is why the Brazilians speak Portuguese today.

Answer 3

look at its georgraphy..in order for the nation to be able to trade and communicate with the outside world, they had to become a seafaring people. Thus it made it possible for them to be amongst the first to explore the new world...However, Magellan who was Portuguese was denied permission to find a quicker route to the spice islands, which meant circumnavigating the globe to find it eventually. He actually sailed under the Spanish flag. This didn't make many Portuguese people very happy.

Answer 4

They were ideally located, being on the most southwest corner of Europe on the Iberian peninsula, near the throat of the Mediterranean, near Africa, and near the Azores and Canaries. They were poised to be the first to reach Asia by way of sea, and their only nearest competitor was Spain, but they were busy for much of the time pushing the Moors out of Iberia.

Answer 5

The steam engine