1430-1449 Portuguese Begin West Africa Slave Raids

This twenty year period covers the reign of Henry VI of England in the last year of the Roman Pope Martin V -- of the Colonna family -- who was succeeded in 1431 by Pope Eugene IV and immediately made enemies by requiring the Colonna family to relinquish wealth and land the former pope had conferred upon them.

In 1433 Eugene IV crowned the German king Sigismund Holy Roman Emperor and in 1439 -- the same year in which the Russian Orthodox church became a separate entity -- the eastern emperor John VIII Paleologus went to Florence to seek papal help against the Turks, but nothing eventuated because Eugene was experiencing a lot of trouble with the French cardinals who had appointed an antipope, Felix.

In 1447 Nicholas V succeeded Eugene with a lot of German support, and in 1449 the antipope Felix abdicated and peace was restored.

In this period there was only war in the world -- the continuing 1425-1454 Wars in Lombardy -- and considering the periods before and after, it was a relatively peaceful time.

Of course, it was anything but peaceful for the Africans because in 1433 the Portuguese begin slave-raiding along the West Africa coast and thousands of poor souls were sold into slavery, ending up in the fields or kitchens of wealthy aristocrats.