Arguin Feitoria

Timeline

1. 1443–1445Arguin Island · MauritaniaPortuguese fleets reached Arguin Island around 1443, confirming it as an anchorage for intercepting trade routes along the western edge of the Sahara and contacting Berber merchants; the island's shallows and fishing grounds also had resupply value, preparing the geographical conditions for the subsequent establishment of a permanent trading post.
2. 1445–1448Arguin Feitoria · Arguin IslandPrince Henry oversaw the establishment of a feitoria on the island: warehouses, factors, and armed guards were set up, and gold and gum were purchased under a royal monopoly while slave transport was organized, forming Europe's first permanent fortified trading post in West Africa.
3. 1450–1455Arguin Feitoria · MauritaniaBy around 1455 Arguin exported some eight hundred enslaved people annually to Portugal while maintaining gold and gum procurement; captains were regularly appointed by the king, factors took a commission on transactions, and the feitoria became a transit hub under direct royal control.
4. 1460–1487Arguin and its inland connections · MauritaniaIn the 1460s Arguin continued to operate and was an existing node during Fernão Gomes's chartered expansion period; around 1487 the Portuguese attempted to establish an inland trading post at Ouadane, showing that the Arguin model had extended from coastal strongholds toward the Saharan trade routes.