The Conquest of Ceuta (22 August, 1415) by the Portuguese had its roots in the earliest years of the House of Aviz dynasty of Portugal. Both the Battle of Ceuta and, in a larger sense, the era of European expansion were influenced by Henry the Navigator. Born in 1394, Henry was the third son of […]
The origin of the Kingdom of Portugal lay in the reconquista, the gradual reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. After establishing itself as a separate kingdom in 1139, Portugal completed its reconquest of Moorish territory by reaching Algarve in 1249, but its independence continued to be threatened by neighbouring Castile until the signing […]
The conquest of Ceuta by the Portuguese on August 14, 1415 marks an important step in the beginning of the Portuguese Empireas well as of European colonial expansion in general. Ceuta had served as a staging ground in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711, but it was destroyed in 740 and only rebuilt in […]