Portuguese+What

In Portugal: - epidemic of 1348-1349, chronic local and general warfare, recurring famines, scarcity of bullion, declining revenues and increasing expenditures of the elites, and the papal schism. Its small size, sense of identity, and dynastic strength afforded more stability than its neighbours enjoyed in the fifteenth century. - Internal constraints forced both the royal family and the people to look outside the borders for new opportunities. The Madeiras, Azores, and Cape Verde Islands, explored and colonized between the 1420s and 1460s, offered new lands and agricultural possibilities; western Africa yielded profitable commodities, in particular gold and slaves; and Morocco, the most conventional outlet, provided socially suitable “work” for the nobility and seemingly prestigious territorial acquisitions. - Portugal went on a series of campaigns in Morocco in the 1450s and 1460s which by 1471 resulted in the capture of Alcacer Seguer, Arzila, and Tangier, and left Portugal in control of the northern coast of Morocco. -Encyclopedia of the Renaissance