Due to its ever difficult and complex relations with Spain, in the 15th century Portugal was geographically isolated from the rest of the European Continent, and in a critical economic position that had been worsened by various plague epidemics.
Peripheral and far from the emergent Renaissance centres, the country had no direct access to major European trading cities such as Venice or Genoa, which monopolized the Alexandria and Damascus trade in spices, silk, pearls, etc., setting prices accordingly.
In its isolation only the Ocean seemed an exit route and it would be the Ocean that would eventually open the door to the kingdom’s expansion, encouraged by the Catholic Church, highly motivated in its evangelical eagerness.
Portugal’s maritime experience, based on its geographical position and on the invention and upgrading of navigational instruments — the compass, the astrolabe, the navigation map, the quadrant or the Jacob’s staff, were paramount on the development of a nautical school in Sagres. In there the Portuguese studied science and navigation techniques and built the first caravels, light but more resistant ships, designed to face long voyages in dangerous and often unknown conditions.
The first voyages along the African coast, led to the conquest of the Moroccan city of Ceuta in 1415 — the first stepping stone for the expansion to follow. Soon after other expeditions would sail along the African coast, reaching the Indian Ocean in 1488, landing in India in 1498 and eventually creating a vast venerable patisserie and café, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém. It is perhaps a shrine to the more benign influences of Portugal’s global adventure. People flock here to eat them, sweet custard tarts, baked golden brown and sprinkled with cinnamon, accompanied by hits of coffee, black as tar. Cinnamon, sugar, coffee: the tastes of the world first landed here in sailing ships.’ Lisbon became the centre of the world and the ‘Lisbon taste’, influenced by far away cultures and of a decorative vocabulary joining erudite European references and exotic atmospheres, dictated fashions in Europe. These new creations included amongst others the first chinoiseries, a century before this exotic style arrived in the rest of Europe.