History of Lisbon IV

Crusades: Portugal conquest Lisbon (continuation)

The ghetto was Mouraria correspondent for Muslims, containing the Grand Mosque. Yet there were prosperous and educated as Jews, since the Muslim elites had fled to North Africa, while the literate speakers of Portuguese Jews had no homeland. Most were workers with low skill level wages, and many Christians were slaves. They too had to use symbols in robes and pay extra taxes, and suffered the violence of the crowds. The term comes from the hick who paid excise Muslims who cultivated gardens in the city limits, the salaio; Lisboan well as the term comes from the cultivation of these plants by the Arabs, so little consumed in the North.

However the city's prosperity would be interrupted. In 1290 occurs the first major historical earthquake, thousands of people died and many buildings are crumbling. New earthquakes recorded in 1318, 1321, 1334, 1337 and in 1344 a large part of which destroys the Cathedral and the Alcazaba, in 1346, 1356 (destroys another portion of the Cathedral), 1366, 1395 and 1404 all possibly resulting from adjustments in same flaw. Hunger arises in 1333 and in 1348 appears the first time the Black Death, which has killed half the population, with new outbreaks of lower mortality in each decade, as more people were born susceptible. These disasters destroyed in Lisbon as the rest of Europe vibrant Civilization of the Middle Ages, with its cathedrals and its universal spirit of Christianity, but paved the way for the emergence of the new civilization of Discovery and the new scientific spirit.

Revolution

The new chapter in the history of Lisbon born with the great revolution Crisis of 1383-85. After the death of Fernando de Portugal, the Kingdom would go to the King of Castile, John I of Castile. The great aristocrats and clerics North, owners of large estates in the South who acquired after the Reconquista, and had interests similar to those of Castilian culture with an emphasis on social distinctions based on possession of the land, in the spirit of crusade against the Moors in North Africa , and the benefits of the union of all Hispania. However these are not the interests of the merchants of Lisbon (many small gentry). For Lisbon, union with Castile mean a dilution of commercial links with Britain and the North, and also with the Middle East, as well as a diversion of attention of privileges to merchants and boat building trade and war for land armies and privileges to Noble. That's why small merchants and noblemen merchant initially supported the Master of Avis, D. John War of 1383 is at bottom a war between conservative Catholic and medieval aristocracy, and connected very similar to their counterparts Galician and Castillian, the former Portucalense centered in Minho (Except Bourgeois Porto, Lisbon ally, among other large cities personalities and North), and the wealthy merchants and pluralistic Lisbon. Nobles North had founded and conquered the country and for them the growing field of Lisbon threatened his supremacy as the alliance with the noble Castilians reestablished. For Lisbon, a city of commerce, feudal practices and land wars of Castilians were a risk to their business. Are the bourgeois who earn the fight with its British connections and huge capital: the Master of Avis is acclaimed John I of Portugal, winning the siege of Lisbon in 1384, and the Battle of Aljubarrota in leadership in 1385 against Nun'Álvares Pereira forces of Castile and the nobles of the North. The new Portuguese aristocracy is formed from merchants Lisboetas, and it is only from this date that the center is really Northern Portugal to Lisbon, Portugal becoming a sort of city-state, where almost only their interests determine the course and independence of the country.

The new bourgeois nobles built their palaces and stately homes in the neighborhood of Santos, while others are the University buildings in Alfama, who returns to Lisbon; Carmo Church, Customs, and some of the first residential buildings throughout Europe with several floors to five. The town consists of narrow, winding streets, most of clay, where the houses alternate with gardens and orchards. The city continues to grow, and the abandonment of large irrigation techniques very productive Muslim means that you must import wheat from Castile, France, land of the Rhine and even Morocco. Lisbon is a city that grows too much for the country, and this becomes a surrounding territory similar to other commercial cities. Lisbon, Antwerp along with the Atlantic serve the same function as the trade organization that Venice, Genoa, Barcelona or Ragusa in the Mediterranean, or Hamburg, Lubeck and other Baltic. In 1417 it is forbidden to lie garbage near the Monastery of Mount Carmel and other areas of Lisbon. In 1426 another law prohibits throw garbage and let chickens loose in the streets of Lisbon under penalty of paying a fine.

The foreign policy interests of Lisbon follows: are signed trade agreements and cooperation with the city-state of Venice trade agreement (1392), Genoa (1398), Pisa and Florence, whose merchants were already living in the city, and many of which are naturalized and become noble Portuguese. Is conquered Ceuta in 1415 to allow merchants Lisboetas better local control (and fight against pirates Saracens) of Mediterranean trade that passed north through the Pillars of Hercules and the Moroccan export wheat at better prices. Moreover, this time Ceuta received the caravans of gold and ivory trade that Lisboetas wanted to dominate, and it was feared the capture of the city by the Castilian or Aragonese rival Sevilla Barcelona. The alliance with Britain, one of its largest customers, is pursued.