Before there was any confirmed landing, several 15th-century portolan charts began to show islands in the North Atlantic that match the Azores. This map evidence matters because it shows how sailors’ knowledge of the ocean expanded in stages, sometimes ahead of clear written records of discovery.
A note on the 1439 chart by Gabriel de Vallseca is commonly read in Portuguese historiography as crediting a “Diogo” (often interpreted as Diogo de Silves) with finding the Azores in 1427. Because the note was later damaged, historians debate details, but the 1427 attribution is widely repeated as an early discovery tradition.
Later Azorean tradition links Gonçalo Velho Cabral to early landings on the eastern islands, including Santa Maria. These voyages helped turn scattered sightings into planned exploration connected to Prince Henry’s wider Atlantic program.
Settlement on Santa Maria began in 1439, making it the first island in the archipelago to be populated in a lasting way. Establishing farms and villages there created a base for continued voyages and for moving people, animals, and supplies to other islands.
On 1439-07-02, a royal letter issued during the regency for King Afonso V granted permission for the Azores to be populated, referring to seven islands then known. The same document notes that sheep had already been set ashore, showing a common step in Portuguese colonization: stocking islands with animals before large-scale settlement.
In 1443, the Crown issued incentives—such as temporary exemptions from certain taxes and fees—to support settlement in the islands. This mattered because colonizing a remote archipelago required reducing early risks for settlers and making the move economically possible.
By the mid-1440s, settlers also began arriving on São Miguel under the same early leadership structure used for Santa Maria. Expanding onto São Miguel showed that Portuguese policy had shifted from exploration to building a chain of inhabited islands across the mid-Atlantic.
Terceira, whose name reflects it being counted as the “third” island discovered in the group, began settlement around 1450. Its development was important because it strengthened the central Azores as a staging area for Atlantic shipping and administration.
By about 1450, the core pattern of Azorean development was established: reconnaissance and mapping were followed by Crown authorization, captaincy grants, and the first farming communities. This period created a permanently inhabited Portuguese archipelago that would support later Atlantic travel and empire-building, even though some islands’ growth accelerated more in later decades.
A decree dated 1450-03-21 linked Terceira’s colonization to Prince Henry’s administration and named the Fleming Jácome de Bruges in the island’s early governance. This shows how Azorean settlement could involve not only Portuguese migrants but also settlers and leaders from other parts of Europe under Portuguese authority.
In 1452, Diogo de Teive and Pedro Velasco are credited in Azorean historical materials with finding the western islands Flores and Corvo. Adding these islands completed the main outline of the archipelago known today and extended Portuguese reach farther into the Atlantic.
In early 1453, the Crown granted rights over Corvo and Flores to D. Afonso, Duke of Bragança, reflecting how the monarchy used donatary grants to organize colonization and control. These legal transfers mattered because settlement depended on clear authority to recruit settlers and manage land distribution.
Discovery and settlement of the Azores (1427–1450)