Azores - History
As an outpost of Portuguese power, by which it could protect lines of communication to the newly discovered land in America, and serve as a stopover for supplies to the Portuguese vessels sailing the Atlantic, the Azores have played an important part in the history of Portugal and the world.
It is not easy to fix any date for the first discovery of the Azores. The islands are never mentioned by early geographers, though they speak of the Fortunate Islands (now the Canaries), and the Purple Islands (now known to us as Madeira and Porto Santo). Some writers say that the islands were known to the Phoenicians, others that they were discovered by the Normans in the ninth century.
Nine Atlantic islands with approximately five and a half centuries of demographic history constitute the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Despite the recent peopling history of these islands, written records regarding the specific origin and relative proportions of the first settlers are scarce and incomplete.
The genetic profile of the Azorean male population shows high affinities with that of mainland Portugal, in accordance with the general knowledge, derived from historical sources, that the Portuguese were the major contributors to the Azorean founding population. Nevertheless, genetic traces of settlers from other origins also mentioned in historical records can still be found in the present-day population. Thus typically sub-Saharan male lineages were detected in the archipelago, in contrast to what has been described for mainland Portugal.
The present-day representation of sub-Saharan lineages in Azores, although reduced, is higher than in other Portuguese populations, where the demographic representation of sub-Saharan slaves is reported as similar. the presence of Moorish and African slaves on the islands, as reported in historical sources, is supported by the genetic data, especially in the Eastern group. The presence of Jews in the Central group is also supported by the data.
In 1431 Prince Henry the Navigator directed one of his Portuguese captains, Francisco Gonzalvo Velho Cabral,1- to “sail toward the setting sun, and on discovering an island to return with an account of it.” Cabral endeavoured to carry out these orders, but returned disheartened, having only found a reef of dangerous rocks, which he named the Formigas, or ants. These rocks lie only twenty miles north-east of Santa Maria, and have been the cause of many a wreck. They are, no doubt, the topmost peaks of a submarine volcano, but the highest of them, called Formigao (the large ant) is only 35 feet above the waves.
on August 15, 1432, Cabral did find the island, and named it Santa Maria. There were no inhabitants, and apparently no animals. Prince Henry, however, when Cabral hastened home with the news of his discovery, at once made him governor of the island, and sent a cargo of cattle and useful animals to be turned out upon it. He also induced many persons from Algarve and Estramadura in Southern Portugal to go out as colonists.
Formerly they were called the Flemish Islands, because they were supposed to have been discovered by a Flemish merchant, a native of Bruges, who, in his voyage to Lisbon in 1445, or as others think, in 1449, was driven so far to the west by a storm, as to fall in with the Azores, which he sound uninhabited. Upon his arrival at Lisbon, he gave such hints, in relating his adventure, as were sufficient to engage that then enterprising court ia a farther discovery, which succeeded to their wish. Antonio Gonzalo, in his History of the Discoverers of the World, fays, that the great Don Henry, prince of Portugal, thought this so considerable an acquisition to the sormer discoveries he had made, that he went in person to take possession of the Azores in 1449.
In 1826, severe fighting took place in Terceira between the "Liberals," as the friends of Dona Maria II. called themselves, and the Miguelistas, resulting in favour of the former. On August 11, 1830, a Miguelista fleet, which endeavoured to force a landing at Praia in Terceira, was repulsed with a loss of 1,000 men, and in July-August, 1831, the Miguelistas were finally defeated in Sao Miguel, the last of the Azores to remain faithful to the cause of absolutism and its attendant priesthood.
In the 1850s there was a disastrous decline in agricultural productivity in the Azores. A potato rot struck at the heart of the main subsistance crop while a new vineyard disease severely curtailed wine production. Large numbers of Portuguese immigrants migrated from the rugged Azores Islands and began settling around Gloucester's Inner Harbor as early as 1829 to work in the city's active fishing industry. By 1888, approximately 200 Portuguese families lived in Gloucester making it the largest Portuguese colony on the East Coast.
Since its discovery in the early 15th century, the Portuguese Azores have played an important part in oceanic navigation. The Azores were a logistical point for the discovery of new worlds, and proved to be a gem in the Atlantic during the early days of aviation. As aircraft technology improved, it was not long before aviators began to look across the great oceans as an obtainable goal.
The Azores became increasingly important during World War II because of their geographical position between Europe and North America. Using the isles as a mid-Atlantic refueling station, air transports were able to reduce round-trip flying time from the United States to Africa from 70 to 40 hours. During the latter part of the war, air bases were located on Santa Maria and Terceira. It was the "Grand Central Station" of the Air Force, serving the American European Theater with as many as 900 aircraft and 13,000 crew members and passengers passing through the archipelago in a single month.
When the British left Terceira in 1946, the United States moved its military operations from Santa Maria to Lajes Field. Since then, the American presence has remained as a result of periodically negotiated agreements between the United States and Portugal.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
