Ching Shih (#58)

Background

Much of Ching Shih's early life is unknown, including her birth date and her birth name. What we do know is that she was a Cantonese prostitute who was working in the city of Canton until she was captured by pirates. In 1801, she married Zheng Yi, a notorious Cantonese pirate from a successful pirate family. Zheng Yi used military assertion and his reputation to create an alliance of pirates. By 1804, the fleet Zheng Yi created had become one of the most powerful fleets in all of China and was known as the Red Flag Fleet.

Rise to Power

On November 16, 1807, Zheng Yi died. Ching Shih, who had taken part in all of her husband's business as a pirate, began to maneuver herself into her late husbands leadership position. She began to refer to herself as Ching Shih, which means Zheng's widow, and she began to create personal relationships to get rivals to recognize her authority. 

Ching Shih further strengthened her position by gaining the support of Cheng Pao-yang and Cheng Ch'i, the nephew and cousin of her late husband. Ching Shih used Chang Pao and Cheng Ch'i to manage the fleets daily operations while she commanded the fleet as a whole. Eventually, Chang Pao and Ching Shih became lovers and later on, the two married. 

Chang Pao and Ching Shih united the Red Flag Fleet under a common code of laws which was strictly enforced. The code included rules on the division of riches taken from captured ships along with punishments for insubordination, and codes on taking captives and raiding villages.

The End

By 1806, Ching Shih's fleet was the strongest in all of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Chinese attempted to stop the fleet, but failed to do so and lost 63 ships in the process. Portugal and Britain also tried to defeat Ching Shih, but both failed. The navies of the three nations realized that it was hopeless and in 1810, all pirates were offered amnesty. Ching Shih took the opportunity to retire. She took her loot and opened a gambling house. She died in 1844, when it is believed that she was 69. Ching Shih is on our list for creating what was probably the greatest pirate fleet that the world has ever seen.

The Foundation of the Jesuit Order (August 15th)

Saint Ignatius of  Loyola was a soldier for the kingdom of Castile in what is now Spain. For many years, he fought Moors, helping to remove their presence from the Iberian Peninsula. In 1521, Ignatius had a leg broken and the other injured by a cannonball. While recovering, Ignatius read De Vita Christi by Ludolph of Saxony. This commentary on the Gospel gave Ignatius a better understanding of Christianity.

While recovering, Ignatius continued to read religious texts. After he was healed, Ignatius set his armor and weapons in front of the altar at a monastery. For a year, Ignatius lived in a cave, practicing self-denial and sacrifice. In 1523, Ignatius continued these practices while he visited the Holy Land.

Ignatius began to gain companions in his practice of sacrifice. Soon, he had six companions with him: Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laynez, Nicholas Bobadilla, Peter Faber, and Simao Rodrigues. On August 15th, 1534, these seven men took apostolic vows and formed the Society of Jesus, which became better known as the Jesuit Order.

The Jesuit Order is engaged in evangelical and apostolic ministry. The path of sacrifice that Ignatius of Loyala used became a central part of the Jesuit Order. The Jesuits would sacrifice all they had to spread across the globe and educate people on the Gospel.

Ignatius of Loyala went on to become the Father General and leader of the Jesuits. St. Francis Xavier became famous in his own right for being one of the first people to visit Japan and evangelize to the people there. The Jesuit Order has continued to grow since its foundation and has spread out into 112  nations on six continents.

The Battle of Aljubarrota (August 14th)

John, known as John the Bastard, was the illegitimate son of King Pedro I of Portugal. John kept a low political profile, sitting quiet while his half-brother took the throne. When his half-brother died, the late king's widow, Queen Leonor, worked to get a different John, John I of Castile (north-central Spain) as the recognized ruler of Portugal.

This recognition of a Spaniard ruling over the Portuguese sparked some patriotism in the Portuguese. Many Portuguese nationalists, led by Pereira Nuno Alvares, approached John the Bastard to rise up and seize power. John agreed, killed Leonor's chief minister, and took the throne. Queen Leonor fled the country and went to John of Castile to ask him for aid.

John of Castile marched on Portugal with a large army, but John the Bastard and Pereira, aided by a small group of English archers, led their army into battle on the road to Lisbon, and on August 14th, 1385, Portugal won a great victory against John of Castile. This confirmed Portugal's identity as an independent state.

The next year, John of Portugal signed the Treaty of Windsor, pledging friendship between the two countries for all eternity. The alliance is still in force today. John of Portugal went on to marry Philippa, and English duke's daughter. She turned the Portugese court into a high court of Europe. The couple also had several children, one of which was Henry the Navigator. Pereira Nuno Alvares became rich after fighting in the battle, and used the money to create a monastery, where he became a friar.  Pereira later was declared a saint.

Bartholomew Diaz(#84)

Bartholomew Diaz

Background

Bartolomeu Dias, or Bartholomew Diaz, was born around the year 1451,the son of a Portuguese nobleman. Very little is known about Dias's life, but as an adult, he became a Knight of the royal court, the superintendent of the royal warehouses, and the captain of the ship, Sao Cristovao. Dias was married and had two children: Simao and Antonia Dias.

Sailing

After Marco Polo came back from the East, Europeans started looking for ways to travel to the East without travelling through any Islamic kingdoms. Europeans wanted to find both spices and precious metals. Also, they wanted to find Prester John. Prester John was a supposed Christian ruler of the East who would serve as a powerful ally against the Muslim nations, something that Europeans desperately needed during the Crusades. On October 10, 1487, Bartholomew Diaz was appointed by King John II of Portugal to sail around the southern tip of Africa, which had not yet been discovered by Europeans, and to search for Prester John. Diaz sailed out of Lisbon that same year, hugging the African coast the entire way down. As he sailed, Diaz completely missed the southern tip of Africa, so he decided to go straight on to India. Diaz, unfortunately, was forced to turn back after his crew refused to go any further. On his way back, Diaz landed at the tip of Africa, naming it the Cape of Storms. King John II later named it the Cape of Good Hope. Diaz later helped in the construction of Sao Gabriel and Sao Rafael, the two ships that held Vasco da Gama, the first European to sail all the way to Asia. Bartholomew also sailed with da Gama on the first leg of his voyage to India, though he did not travel the entire way.

The End

Bartholomew Diaz sailed with Pedro Alvares Cabral on the expedition which discovered Brazil. After the ships turned around and sailed to India via the Cape of Good Hope. On May 29, 1500, at the Cape, a violent storm hit the ships, wrecking Diaz's ship, probably killing him in the process. Diaz is on our list because he discovered that Africa actually had a southern tip. His maps provided the basis for the expeditions led by Vasco da Gama and Pedro Cabral.

#02- Ferdinand Magellan

02 Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) was a Portuguese navigator who worked for the Spanish king, Charles I. Magellan claimed that he knew where the passage through the New World to Asia was, so in September of 1519, with five ships (the Trinidad, the San Antonio, the Concepcion, the Victoria, and the Santiago) Magellan set out west with 270 men. After almost a year of sailing and two unsuccessful mutiny attempts, Magellan found a passage to the Pacific, which he named the Strait of All Saints. This strait was later renamed the 'Strait of Magellan'. During the Voyage through the Strait of All Saints, the captain of the ship, the San Antonio, turned around and went back towards Spain. Because the San Antonio was a supply ship, the men had to lower their rations for the trip through the Pacific. Soon, men were surviving on sawdust, leather strips of sails, and rats, and scurvy ran rampant through the crew. The crew finally got fresh fruit again in March of 1521, when the ships reached Guam. Later in that month, they made it to the Philippines, where Magellan befriended a local king. Unfortunately, this made him enemies with another local king, Lapulapu. On April 27, 1521, Magellan was killed in a battle. The remaining ship was led to Spain by Sebastian del Cano. Although only 18 men survived the whole trip, the spices and goods collected during the voyage cost more than all the 5 ships put together. The only ship to return, the Victoria, was the first ship to circumnavigate the world. Although Magellan didn't finish the trip, he was the designated leader, fought starvation, local wars, and mutiny, and was rewarded by getting 18 men around the world.

Information from...

www.mariner.org/education

#05- Vasco da Gama

05 Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) was a Portuguese explorer commissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to find a sea route to Asia. In July of 1497, Vasco da Gama left Lisbon and went south to past Africa. Using Bartholomeu Dias's charts, Da Gama successfully made his way to India. The Indians welcomed Da Gama and his men, but some Arabian traders undermined their reputation, and Da Gama was attacked. After fighting his way out of the town, Vasco Da Gama returned home. In 1502, Da Gama returned to India with 20 ships and captured the cities of Calicut and Goa for Portugal, bringing many treasures back upon his return. After becoming a count in 1519, Da Gama was appointed as the Viceroy of India in 1524, and traveled to Goa once more. Vasco da Gama is celebrated as the explorer to find an ocean route to Asia from Europe and for capturing Calicut and Goa for Portugal. Soon after he returned to India, Da Gama fell ill and died on December 24, 1524.

Information From...

http://www.answers.com/topic/vasco-da-gama

#06- Amerigo Vespucci

06 Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512) came from a prominent family in Florence, Italy. In 1492, Vespucci was sent to Spain for business reasons. While in Spain, Vespucci started working on ships and became the navigator of an expedition in 1499. During this trip, Vespucci reached the mouth of the Amazon and the northern coast of South America. Vespucci went on a second trip to America in 1501, but this time, Vespucci travelled south, exploring the coast of South America, coming within 400 miles of Tierra del Fuego. During this trip, Vespucci wrote letters to a friend, and Vespucci's descriptions of his travels were the first to identify the Americas as a separate continent from Asia. Along with this information, Vespucci also described the culture of the natives of America. In 1508, Vespucci was named Pilot Major of Spain, promoting his fame. Martin Waldseemuller was a German scholar read of Vespucci's travels. He also thought that the New World was separate from Asia, so when Waldseemuller made a wood block map of the world known as the Carta Mariana, he used Vespucci's first name, which is America in German, as the name of the New World. The map sold around 1000 copies, and the name stayed. Vespucci earns many points for identifying the Americas as a separate land mass from Asia and for having two continents named after him. Vespucci died of Malaria in 1512 after a third trip to America.

Information from...
http://geography.about.com

#09- Bartholomeu Dias

09 Bartholomeu Dias

Bartholomeu Dias (c.1450-1499) was a Portuguese explorer who came from the family of Joao Dias, who sailed around Cape Bojador, and Diniz Dias, who discovered the Cape Verde Islands. In 1481, Bartholomeu joined Diego d'Azambuja to explore the Gold Coast of Africa. In 1486, King John II of Portugal appointed Dias to lead an expedition to find the southern tip of Africa and try to make contact with Prester John, the legendary Christian ruler of the East. With three ships, Dias sailed down the coast of Africa. During a storm, Dias passed around the southern tip of Africa and named it the Stormy Cape.Though Dias went back to Portugal soon after he went around the Stormy Cape, the information he brought home brought hope to many explorers, and the cape was later named the Cape of Good Hope. His charts helped explorers like Pedro Cabral and Vasco da Gama find their way to India. Dias will be remembered as the explorer who found the tip of Africa, gave explorers hope of finding a passage to India, and pushing Portugal into the front of the Age of Exploration. Although Dias did find the way to India, he never made it there. He sailed with Pedro Cabral on a trip to India, but drowned in a storm at the very cape that he had discovered.

Information from...
www.elizabethan-era.org.uk

#14- Pedro Alvarez Cabral

14 Pedro Cabral

Pedro Alvarez Cabral (1467-1520) was a Portugese explorer during the reign of King John II. King John appointed Cabral to sail arround the Cape of Good Hope and go to the Indies. With 13 ships, Cabral left Lisbon in 1500, with many men including Bartholemeu Dias, the explorer who had found the Cape of Good Hope. After sailing through the Cape Verdes Islands, Cabral found Brazil. Because Cabral thought that South America was an island, he named the land Vera Cruz (The True Cross). The brazilwood that Cabral found in Brazil contained a red dye. Cabral's men named the dye Terra de Brasil, from which the name Brazil came from. From South America, Cabral went towards the Cape of Good Hope. On May 24, 1500, a storm broke out at the cape, sinking the ship of Bartholemeu Dias. In September, Cabral arrived in Calcut, and Cabral brought many spices back from India. Cabral earns greatness for finding and naming Brazil, as well as going straight from South America to India.

Information From...
www.elizabethan-era.org.uk