DISCOVERY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO OF MADEIRA
The travelers uncovered the island of Porto Santo in 1418 after a sea storm, where the vessel was cleared of its route along the shore of Africa, as a result of bad weather condition. After several days adrift at sea, a tiny island which they called "Porto Seguro, Porto Santo" ("Safe Port, Holy Port" in English), was found and even conserved Zarco's crew from a devastating destiny.
A year after the discovery of Porto Santo they show up on Madeira Island in 1419. Its name is thought to have actually been designated by Zarco, who referred to as the island of 'Madeira' ("wood" in English) because of the abundance of this basic material.
Around 1425, King João I got the colonization of the islands. From 1440 on, the regimen of captaincy is set up and also Tristão Vaz Teixeira was nominated as captain-donee of the Captaincy of Machico; 6 years later on, Bartolomeu Perestrelo becomes captain-donee of Porto Santo, and in 1450, Zarco was selected captain-donee of Funchal.
The initial settlers were the three captain-donees and even their respective households, a little team of members of the gentry, people of modest conditions and even some former prisoners of the Kingdom.
To have minimum conditions for the advancement of farming on the island they needed to slice down component of the thick woodland and even build a lot of water stations, called "levadas", to carry the bountiful waters on the north shore to the south coast of the island.
In the early times, fish and also veggies were the inhabitants' main means of subsistence.
TIME OF 'WHITE GOLD
In the fifteenth century, Madeira starts growing sugar walking cane imported from Sicily by Dom Henrique. With the rapid development of the sugar walking cane sector, Funchal ends up being an industrial center of excellence, gone to by investors of various nationalities, which changes its insular financial dimension.
In 1472, the Madeira sugar starts being directly exported to Flanders, which became its main redistribution center. Madeira thinks specific significance in the axis of these relations between Flanders and also Portugal.
With the production of sugar walking stick, Madeira attracted travelers and investors from one of the most remote origins, this expedition was taken into consideration at the time as the main engine of Madeira's economy. Numerous foreigners took a trip to the area for the sugar business, especially Italians, Basques, Catalans and Flemish home owner.
The marketing of sugar in Madeira reached its top in the 1520s which accompanied the timing of a lot of Flemish masterpieces to the island, in an infamous commercial setting of prosperity. Functions of massive percentages were imported, mostly paintings, over the top combined altarpieces or triptychs, as well as major images from Bruges, Antwerp as well as Malines. Silver as well as copper objects, and even gravestones with metal inlays were imported from Flanders and also Hainaut, such as those in the Funchal Cathedral and also in Museums such as the one of Sacred Art.
Until the very first half of the sixteenth century, Madeira was one of the significant sugar markets of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, there were numerous reasons for the decrease of this culture and also provided method to various other markets.
WINE CULTURE
In the mid sixteenth century, the popular English dramatist William Shakespeare cites the important export and prestige of the Malvasia wine, sinking the Duke of Clarence, bro of King Edward IV of England, in a barrel of this wine.
With the decrease of sugar production in the late sixteenth century, sugar ranches were replaced by wineries, stemming in the so-called 'Wine Culture', which got global popularity as well as supplied the increase of a new social class, the Bourgeoisie.
