The Portuguese explorers were responsible for discovering more than 70% of the world previously unknown to Europeans. Many of these discoveries were not made official because Portugal was too small to be able to dominate, colonize and defend all territories against the other European powers.
Many of these discoveries were not made official because Portugal was too small to be able to dominate, colonize and defend all territories against the other European powers. Territories such as Greenland, Newfoundland and Australia were discovered by the Portuguese and colonized by other peoples.
In 1500 Dias commanded four ships in an expeditionary force led by Pedro Alvarez Cabral. During this voyage, they would be the first Europeans to spot Brazil. In May 1500, Dias was caught in a terrible storm off the Cape of Good Hope.
A major maritime victory for Portugal, Dias’ breakthrough opened the door to increased trade with India and other Asian powers. It also prompted Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), then living in Portugal, to seek a new royal patron for a mission to establish his own sea route to the Far East.
Ferdinand Magellan is best known for being an explorer for Portugal, and later Spain, who discovered the Strait of Magellan while leading the first expedition to successfully circumnavigate the globe. He died en route and Juan Sebastián del Cano completed it.
Pedro Álvares CabralPedro Álvares Cabral. Pedro Álvares Cabral, (born 1467/68, Belmonte, Portugal—died 1520, Santarém?), Portuguese navigator who is generally credited as the first European to reach Brazil (April 22, 1500).
diplomat Pedro Álvares CabralBrazil was officially "discovered" in 1500, when a fleet commanded by Portuguese diplomat Pedro Álvares Cabral, on its way to India, landed in Porto Seguro, between Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.
Almost nothing is known about the life of Bartolomeu de Novaes Dias before 1487, except that he was at the court of João II, or King John II of Portugal (1455-1495), and was a superintendent of the royal warehouses. He likely had much more sailing experience than his one recorded stint aboard the warship São Cristóvão.
On May 10, 1497, explorer Amerigo Vespucci embarked on his first voyage. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him.
Da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India opened the way for an age of global imperialism and enabled the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire along the way from Africa to Asia.
The first European to claim sovereignty over Indigenous lands part of what is now the territory of the Federative Republic of Brazil on the continent of South America was Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467/1468 – c. 1520) on 22 April 1500 under the sponsorship of the Kingdom of Portugal.
explorer Pedro Alvares CabralIn the same year, Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal, arguing that the territory fell into the Portuguese sphere of exploration as defined by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.
It depicts Pedro Álvares Cabral, leader of the Portuguese expedition that discovered the land that would later be known as Brazil in 1500. Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese explorer who is credited with discovering Brazil in South America. He landed near present-day Bahia off the eastern coast of South America.
navigator Bartolomeu DiasThe Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa in 1488 and named it the Cape of Good Hope (Portuguese: Cabo da Boa Esperança). The first European settlement in southern Africa was established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company at Table Bay, 30 miles (48 km) north of the cape.
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was commissioned by the Portuguese king to find a maritime route to the East. He was the first person to sail directly from Europe to India.
navigator Bartolomeu DiasThe first European to sight the cape was Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 on his return voyage to Portugal after ascertaining the southern limits of the African continent.
Cape Verde would be discovered by Diogo Gomes in 1456. Multiple Portuguese explorers explored the Gulf of Guinea and discovered a lucrative gold trade. The next major breakthrough came with Bartolomeu Dias. Dias would sail to the southern tip of Africa and discover a way around the continent.
Dias’s discovery was built upon decades of exploration by the Portuguese. This proved that there was access to the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic.
This gave rise to Henry the Navigator who began to send explorers off the coast of Portugal to expand Portuguese influence. Henry’s ideas were based on superstition and ambition. He believed, like many in his day, of the legend of the Christian Kingdom, Prester John, and sought to explore and find the legendary kingdom.
In 1415, Ceuta was seized by the Portuguese which secured Portuguese presence along the coast of Africa further. This gave rise to Henry the Navigator who began to send explorers off the coast of Portugal to expand Portuguese influence.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was a devastating blow to Europe both politically and economically. With Constantinople under Ottoman control, the spice trade that Marco Polo wrote about was blocked. European nations began to look for alternatives.
Afonso Henriques would lead a crusade to drive the Moors out of the Country of Portugal. He was successful and named himself the first King of Portugal.
In 1497 King Manuel I funded Vasco da Gama’s mission to sail around the Cape of Good Hope and to India.
A chart drawn by the Catalan cartographer, Gabriel de Vallseca of Mallorca, has been interpreted to indicate that the Azores were first discovered by Diogo de Silves in 1427. In 1431, Gonçalo Velho was dispatched with orders to determine the location of "islands" first identified by de Silves.
During Prince Henry's time and after, the Portuguese navigators discovered and perfected the North Atlantic Volta do Mar (the "turn of the sea" or "return from the sea"): the dependable pattern of trade winds blowing largely from the east near the equator and the returning westerlies in the mid-Atlantic.
Until Henry's time, Cape Bojador remained the most southerly point known to Europeans on the desert coast of Africa. Superstitious seafarers held that beyond the cape lay sea monsters and the edge of the world. In 1434, Gil Eanes, the commander of one of Henry's expeditions, became the first European known to pass Cape Bojador.
Under Henry's direction, a new and much lighter ship was developed, the caravel, which could sail further and faster. Above all, it was highly maneuverable and could sail " into the wind ", making it largely independent of the prevailing winds. The caravel used the lateen sail, the prevailing rig in Christian Mediterranean navigation since late antiquity. With this ship, Portuguese mariners freely explored uncharted waters around the Atlantic, from rivers and shallow waters to transocean voyages.
The term was coined by two nineteenth-century German historians: Heinrich Schaefer and Gustave de Veer.
Henry was interested in locating the source of the caravans that brought gold to the city. During the reign of his father, John I, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira were sent to explore along the African coast.
The Portuguese Cortes refused to return Ceuta as ransom for Ferdinand, who remained in captivity until his death six years later. Prince Regent Peter supported Portuguese maritime expansion in the Atlantic Ocean and Africa, and Henry promoted the colonization of the Azores during Peter's regency (1439–1448).
Bartolomeu Dias. First European to sail around the southern tip of Africa. Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450 – 29 May 1500), was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. He was the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa in 1488 and demonstrate that the most effective southward course lay in the open ocean well to west of the African coast.
The Portuguese government erected two navigational beacons, Dias Cross and da Gama Cross, to commemorate Dias and Vasco da Gama, who were the first modern European explorers to reach the Cape of Good Hope. When lined up, these crosses point to Whittle Rock, a large, permanently submerged shipping hazard in False Bay .
The small fleet left Lisbon around July 1487. Like his predecessor, Cão, Dias carried a set of padrãos, carved stone pillars to be used to mark his progress at important landfalls. Also onboard were six Africans who had been kidnapped by Cão and taught Portuguese.They were to be dropped off at points along the African coast so they could testify to the grandeur of the Portuguese kingdom and make inquiries into the possible whereabouts of Prester John.
Dias's expedition reached its furthest point on 12 March 1488, when it anchored at Kwaaihoek, near the mouth of the Boesmans River and erected the Padrão de São Gregório. By then, the crew had become increasingly restless and urged Dias to turn around. Supplies were low, the ships were battered, and the rest of the officers unanimously favored returning to Portugal. Although Dias wanted to continue, he agreed to turn back. It was only on the return voyage that they actually encountered the Cape of Good Hope, in May 1488. Tradition says that Dias originally named it the Cape of Storms ( Cabo das Tormentas) and King John II later renamed it the Cape of Good Hope ( Cabo da Boa Esperança) because it represented the opening of a route to the east.
In October, 1486, he commissioned Dias to lead an expedition in search of a trade route around the southern tip of Africa. Dias was also charged with searching for Prester John, a legendary figure believed to be the powerful Christian ruler of a realm somewhere beyond Europe, possibly in the African interior.
Dias was later ennobled for his accomplishments and by 1494 he was serving as a squire in the court of King John II. He also served as superintendent of the royal warehouses from 1494 to 1497.
The expedition sailed directly to the Congo and from there proceeded more carefully down the African coast, often naming notable geographic features after the saints being honored on the Catholic Church calendar. When they reached modern-day Porto Alexandre, Angola, Dias left behind the supply ship to await their return voyage. By December, Dias passed the farthest point reached by Cão, arriving at the Golfo da Conceicão ( Walvis Bay in modern Namibia) on 8 December 1487. After making slow progress along the Namibian coast, the two ships turned southwest away from land. Historians have debated whether they were driven offshore by a storm or whether it was a deliberate attempt to find more favorable winds. In either case, the manoeuvre was successful: their course traced a broad arc around the tip of Africa and on 4 February 1488, after 30 days on the open ocean, they entered what would eventually become known as Mossel Bay.
Prince of Portugal who fought the Moors and funded many expeditions down the coast of Africa. Also trained navigators and mapmakers.
Crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and was the first explorer to see the Pacific ocean on the other side of the Americas.
People were afraid to emigrate because of pirates, storms, and shipping accidents that took many lives. Also, Spain's mercantilism emphasis on acquiring gold and silver without reinvesting it in businesses discouraged economic growth in the New World.
The climate was colder, French peasants were more satisfied at home, France discouraged colonization in order to recruit more people for military service, and the French limited colonization to avoid conflict with Indian fur-trapping and trading partners.
The descendants of marriages between Spanish settlers and the native populations of the New World, now called Mexican or Hispanic people .
Spanish explorers and conquerors who went to the New World to find treasure and convert the native peoples to Christianity.
Inherited his brother, Humphrey Gilbert's, land grant and founded the first English colony in the New World on Roanoke Island.
Despite many attempts, the Portuguese explorers had been unsuccessful. Much of Portuguese exploration began with Prince Henry the Navigator. Prince Henry, however, did not really do much sailing. He is responsible for Portugal’s age of exploration.
He took a trip with a nobleman named Diogo de Azambuja in 1481. They traveled down to the Gold Coast in Africa to a Portuguese fort on the Gulf of Guinea.3 During this time, Portugal was heavily exploring the African continent. They hoped to find a trade route from Europe to Asia by going around Africa.
Dias joined da Gama in 1497 for his expedition to circumnavigate Africa to reach India. Dias only went as far as the Cape Verde Islands, where he parted ways with da Gama.8 Vasco da Gama went on to reach India in May 1498. Later Years and Death. Not much is known about Dias’ later life.
In May 1500, Dias was caught in a terrible storm off the Cape of Good Hope. He died when his ship sank, along with three other vessels. Legacy. Bartolomeu Dias never made it to India. But he did discover that a sea trade route to Asia was possible by going around Africa.
Name: Bartolomeu Dias [bahr-too-loo-me-oo] [de e-ahs; (Portuguese) dee-uh sh] Birth/Death: 1450 CE - 1500 CE. Nationality: Portuguese. Birthplace: Portugal.
In 1488, Dias proved that a sea trading route from Europe to Asia was possible. The coast of Africa often had terrible storms which often deterred explorers. But with some luck and skill, Dias navigated these waters to open a new way to reach India from Europe. Biography.
However, it would later be renamed Cape of Good Hope by King John II to encourage travel and trade in the region. Dias returned home to Lisbon in December 1488, where he made reports of his journey to King John II.
Dias followed the route of 15th-century Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão (c. 1450-c. 1486), who had followed the coast of Africa as far as present-day Cape Cross, Namibia. Dias’ cargo included the standard “padrões,” the limestone markers used to stake Portuguese claims on the continent.
Almost nothing is known about the life of Bartolomeu de Novaes Dias before 1487, except that he was at the court of João II, or King John II of Portugal (1455-1495), and was a superintendent of the royal warehouses. He likely had much more sailing experience than his one recorded stint aboard the warship São Cristóvão. Dias was probably in his mid- to late-30s in 1486 when King João II appointed him to head an expedition in search of a sea route to India.
In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) became the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia. Dias’ ships rounded the perilous Cape of Good Hope and then sailed around Africa’s southernmost point, Cabo das Agulhas, to enter the waters of the Indian Ocean. Portugal and other European nations already had long-established trade ties to Asia, but the arduous overland route had been closed in the 1450s due to the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of the remnants of the Byzantine Empire. A major maritime victory for Portugal, Dias’ breakthrough opened the door to increased trade with India and other Asian powers. It also prompted Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), then living in Portugal, to seek a new royal patron for a mission to establish his own sea route to the Far East.
King João II ordered that henceforth, maps would show the new name for Cabo das Tormentas: Cabo da Boa Esperança, or Cape of Good Hope.
Dias named the rocky second cape Cabo das Tormentas (Cap e of Storms) for the tempestuous storms and strong Atlantic-Antarctic currents that made ship travel so perilous.
Dias is thought to have ordered a turn to the south of about 28 degrees, probably because he had prior knowledge of southeasterly winds that would take him around the tip of Africa and keep his ships from being dashed on the notoriously rocky shoreline. João and his predecessors had obtained navigational intelligence, including a 1460 map from Venice that showed the Indian Ocean on the other side of Africa.
At the feared Cabo das Tormentas, storms struck the fleet of 13 ships. In May 1500, four of the ships were wrecked, including Dias’, with all crew lost at sea. Bartolomeu Dias died on May 29, 1500 off the Cape of Good Hope.