Historical context

In the mid-1990s, in anticipation of the 500th anniversary commemorating the great maritime explorations carried out during the 15th century and the mid-16th century, the Bank of Portugal (Banco de Portugal) decided to issue a new series of five banknotes of 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10000 Escudos entitled "Portuguese Seafarers and explorers Issue". The changeover to the new European currency is near and this latest issue in Escudos is the unique opportunity to recall that this small country dominated Europe and the world, when its navigators challenged the oceans in their wooden boats and explored the distant kingdoms of Africa.

These expeditions along the West African coast unfortunately led to the start of colonialism and the slave trade. Despite everything, the great Portuguese navigators, who were opportunistic adventurers eager for new territories and riches, undeniably played a decisive role in the enlargement of the world and the passage from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

The man who illustrates the front of the 10000 Escudos Type 1996 banknote is completely unknown to the general public. It is about Prince Henry or Infante Dom Henrique (1394-1460). Also wearing the name of Henry the Navigator (Henrique o Navegador), he paradoxically never sailed and therefore made no major discoveries! However, he remains in history as the organizer and main patron of Portuguese explorations. His influence on European colonial expansion was so decisive that thirty years after his death in 1487, the Cape of Good Hope was passed by Bartolomeu Dias. In 1492, it was Christopher Columbus turn to follow in the footsteps of the Portuguese in the Atlantic ... But by vainly seeking a more direct route to the West Indies, he finally discovered the America ! Finally, Vasco da Gama definitively opens the “Spice Route” by establishing a maritime link with India in 1498. China was reached in 1513 and thus completed the meeting and the reunion of two worlds ... the West and the East.