Who was the first to reach Asia by sailing all the way around the Cape of Good Hope?
"History of the Cape Colony before 1806 The written history of the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa began when Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias became the first modern European to round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. In 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed along the whole coast of South Africa on his way to India, landed at St Helena Bay for 8 days, and made a detailed description of the area. The Portuguese, attracted by the riches of Asia, made no permanent settlement at the Cape Colony. However, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) settled the area"
"difficult and dangerous. Portuguese navigators tried to find a sea way to Asia. In 1470, the Florentine astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli suggested to King Afonso V of Portugal that sailing west would be a quicker way to reach the Spice Islands, Cathay, and Cipangu than the route around Africa. Afonso rejected his proposal. Portuguese explorers, under the leadership of King John II, then developed the Cape Route to Asia around Africa. Major progress in this quest was achieved in 1488, when Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope, in what is now South Africa. Meanwhile, in the 1480s,"
"Cape Route The European-Asian sea route, also known as the sea route to India or the Cape Route is a shipping route from European coast of the Atlantic Ocean to Asia's coast of the Indian Ocean passing by the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas at the southern edge of Africa. The first recorded completion of the route was made in 1498 by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. The route was important during the Age of Sail, but became partly obsolete as the Suez Canal opened in 1869. Scholars of classical antiquity disagreed whether the Atlantic was connected to"
"of the ""São Gabriel"" and its sister ship, the ""São Rafael"" that were used by Vasco da Gama to sail past the Cape of Good Hope and continue to India. One of the sailors, Bartolomeu Dias passed the southernmost point of Africa known as the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. He declared it possible to travel to India by going around Africa. The Portuguese were then able to make an immense profit by using their own ships to retrieve the spices. This global expedition was launched on 8 July 1497. It concluded two years later with the entry of"
"used by Arab and Chinese traders. The Chinese Ming Dynasty had a fleet of 317 ships with 37,000 men under Zheng He in the early fifteenth century, sailing the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the late fifteenth century, Western European mariners started making longer voyages of exploration in search of trade. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 and Vasco da Gama reached India via the Cape in 1498. Christopher Columbus sailed from Cadiz in 1492, attempting to reach the eastern lands of India and Japan by the novel means of travelling westwards. He made landfall instead"
"Asia and shipping spices from trading emporiums in India westward to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, from which overland routes led to Europe. The trade was changed by the European Age of Discovery, during which the spice trade, particularly in black pepper, became an influential activity for European traders. The Cape Route from Europe to the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope was pioneered by the Portuguese explorer navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498, resulting in new maritime routes for trade. This trade, which drove the world economy from the end of the Middle Ages well"
"This knowledge, together with the map depiction of the African continent, probably encouraged the Portuguese to intensify their effort to round the tip of Africa. In the Early Modern Era, the first European to reach the cape was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias on 12 March 1488, who named it the ""Cape of Storms"" (""Cabo das Tormentas""). It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as ""Cape of Good Hope"" (""Cabo da Boa Esperança"") because of the great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India and the East. The Khoikhoi people lived in the cape"
"years for the Portuguese to follow up on Dias's voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, though it has also been speculated that other voyages were in fact taking place in secret during this time. Whether or not this was the case, the long-standing Portuguese goal of finding a sea route to Asia was finally achieved in a ground-breaking voyage commanded by Vasco da Gama. The squadron of Vasco da Gama left Portugal in 1497, rounded the Cape and continued along the coast of East Africa, where a local pilot was brought on board who guided them across the Indian"
"trade, and gave the Europeans incentives to find a sea route. Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão explored the African coast south to present-day Namibia, and Bartolomeu Dias found the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. Vasco da Gama led an exhibition which led to the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India in 1498, and a series of expeditions known as the Carreira da Índia. Since then, the Cape Route has been in use. Christopher Columbus sought to find a sea route through India westwards, but instead found the way to the Americas. These expeditions marked the beginning of the"
"crossed the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 on an expedition led by Bartolomeu Dias. Just nine years later in 1497 on the orders of Manuel I of Portugal, four vessels under the command of navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, continuing to the eastern coast of Africa to Malindi to sail across the Indian Ocean to Calicut, on the Malabar Coast. in south India – the capital of the local Zamorin rulers. The wealth of the Indies was now open for the Europeans to explore; the Portuguese Empire was the earliest European seaborne empire to"
"the Cape of Good Hope in 1486 and Vasco da Gama (d. 1524) sailed around Africa to India in 1498. The combined Spanish monarchies of Castile and Aragon sponsored the voyage of exploration by Christopher Columbus (d. 1506) in 1492 that discovered the Americas. The English crown under Henry VII sponsored the voyage of John Cabot (d. 1498) in 1497, which landed on Cape Breton Island. One of the major developments in the military sphere during the Late Middle Ages was the increased use of infantry and light cavalry. The English also employed longbowmen, but other countries were unable to"
"and all lands to the west to Castile. With the expedition beyond the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias in 1487, the richness of India was now accessible. Indeed, the cape takes its name from the promise of rich trade with the east. Between 1498 and 1501, Pêro de Barcelos and João Fernandes Lavrador explored North America. At the same time, Pêro da Covilhã reached Ethiopia by land. Vasco da Gama sailed for India and arrived at Calicut on 20 May 1498, returning in glory to Portugal the next year. The Monastery of Jerónimos was built, dedicated to the"
"and again in 1801 they rose in revolt. In February 1803, as a result of the Peace of Amiens, the colony came under the control of the Batavian Republic. History of the Cape Colony before 1806 The written history of the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa began when Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias became the first modern European to round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. In 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed along the whole coast of South Africa on his way to India, landed at St Helena Bay for 8 days, and made a detailed description"
"own book, ""A New Account of the East Indies"" (1727). The term then covered a much wider geographic area than it does today - 'most of the countries and islands of commerce and navigation, between the Cape of Good Hope and the island of Japan.' Illustrated with lively anecdotes, it provides a valuable insight into life in early modern Asia. Alexander Hamilton (sailor) Alexander Hamilton (before 1688 – after 1733) was a Scottish sea captain, privateer and merchant. In his early years he travelled widely through Europe, the Barbary coast, the West Indies, India and South-east Asia. On his arrival"
"and China. After publishing a paper pointing out the advantages of direct communication by sea between Russia and China by passing Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America and the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa, he was appointed by Tsar Alexander I to make a voyage to the Far East coast of Asia to endeavour to carry out the project. Under the patronage of Alexander, Count Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev and the Russian-American Company, Krusenstern led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world. The chief object of this undertaking was the development of the"
"Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle was impressed by an encounter with one of these road guards: The Portuguese Empire and the discovery of the trading route around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 not only hit a death blow to Venice as a trading nation, but it also hurt the trade that was going on along the Silk Route and especially the Persian Gulf. They correctly identified the three key points to control all seaborne trade between Asia and Europe: The Gulf of Aden, The Persian Gulf and the Straits of Malacca by cutting off and controlling these strategic"
"ships, including the Caravel, the Carrack and the Galleon, where for the first time in history maritime navigation was possible. The Portuguese Empire led the Portuguese Kingdom to discover and map most of the Globe, and find seas routes as far as the East and West, such as the remarkable voyage to find the sea route to India via the Cape of Good Hope. Initially Bartolomeu Dias left Portugal and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, with Vasco da Gama reaching the southern tip of Africa and on-wards to India. It was the first time in history that humans had"
"under the sponsorship of Portugal's John II, from which point he noticed that the coast swung northeast (Cape of Good Hope). While Dias' crew forced him to turn back, by 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made the first open voyage from Europe to India. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator in the service of the Crown of Castile ('Spain'), found a sea route into the Pacific Ocean. In 1509, the Portuguese under Francisco de Almeida won the decisive battle of Diu against a joint Mamluk and Arab fleet sent to expel the Portuguese of the Arabian Sea. The"
"successfully utilized advances in military technology but closed the Silk Road. Europeans – specifically the Kingdom of Portugal and various Italian explorers – intended to replace land travel with sea travel. Originally European exploration merely looked for new routes to reach known destinations. Portuguese Explorer Vasco De Gama traveled to India by sea in 1498 by circumnavigating Africa around the Cape of Good Hope. India and the coast of Africa were already known to Europeans but none had attempted a large trading mission prior to that time. Due to navigation advances Portugal would create a global colonial empire beginning with"
"at Mossel Bay and then sailing east as far as the mouth of the Great Fish River, proving that the Indian Ocean was accessible from the Atlantic. Simultaneously Pêro da Covilhã, sent out travelling secretly overland, had reached Ethiopia having collected important information about the Red Sea and Quenia coast, suggesting that a sea route to the Indies would soon be forthcoming. Soon the cape was renamed by king John II of Portugal the ""Cape of Good Hope"" (Cabo da Boa Esperança), because of the great optimism engendered by the possibility of a sea route to India, proving false the"
"Postage stamps and postal history of the Cape of Good Hope This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, led by the explorer Bartolomeu Dias. Table Bay, for over one hundred years known as Saldanha (named after one of Albuquerque's sea captains), became a convenient harbor on the long, hard and dangerous sea voyage to the East. Here letters were left and exchanged with ships sailing back to Europe. Frequently, packets of letters were left under postal"
"the Cape of Good Hope. However, France had learned of his mission, and the French admiral Bailli de Suffren frustrated the mission. Suffren was en route to the Indian Ocean, but the French marine ministry had warned him so he sought to reach the Cape before Johnstone. After an indecisive chance encounter (Battle of Porto Praya), between the two fleets in the Cape Verde Islands on 16 April 1781, Suffren sailed for the Cape while Johnstone remained at Porto Praya for repairs. As a result, Johnstone found the Dutch settlement well defended when he arrived there in July and decided"
"of the trans-Saharan trade routes, and the rise of Portugal as an influential trading power. Even though a variety of English voyagers attempted to break into the African gold trade, the Portuguese preserved a majority hold on it all the way through the 16th century. The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias would later round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 in an attempt to establish a sea route to India, and four years later, Christopher Columbus would discover the New World, opening the door to a completely new source of precious metal imports. The Central European silver-copper mining boom, brought"
"Cape of Good Hope; Vasco da Gama, who sailed directly to India from Portugal; Ferdinand Magellan, the first to circumnavigate the Earth; Christopher Columbus, who significantly encountered the Americas; Jacques Cartier, who sailed for France, looking for the Northwest Passage; and others. The economy of the Roman Empire had been based on money, but after the Empire's fall, money became scarce; power and wealth became strictly land based, and local fiefs were self-sufficient. Because trade was dangerous and expensive, there were not many traders, and not much trade. The scarcity of money did not help; however, the European economic system"
"and Buddhism was introduced by both Indian and Chinese immigrants. Judaism in South Africa came about some time before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, by the participation of Jewish astronomers and cartographers in the Portuguese discovery of the sea-route to India. They assisted Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and 1497 respectively. However, Jewish settlers only began to arrive in numbers from the 1820s. The Bahá'í Faith was introduced in 1911. The Bahá'í community decided to limit membership in its national assembly to black adherents when"
"Ocean, ultimately reaching the coastal countries of East Africa. In 1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and became the first European to sail to India (with the help of an Indian sailor) and later the Far East. The European ships, armed with heavy cannon, quickly dominated trade. Portugal achieved pre-eminence by setting up forts at the important straits and ports. Their hegemony along the coasts of Africa and Asia lasted until the mid 17th century. Later, the Portuguese were challenged by other European powers. The Dutch East India Company (1602–1798) sought control of trade"
"colony of Botany Bay in Australia, as well as Portuguese colonies in the Pacific Ocean. Entering the Indian Ocean, they joined the large convoys of ships from British India that carried millions of pounds of trade goods to Britain every year. Together these ships crossed the Indian Ocean and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailing north until eventually reaching European waters. Docking at one of the principal British ports, the ships unloaded their goods and took on cargo for the return journey. This often consisted of military reinforcements for the Army of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), whose"
"the South African coast. Explorers of routes from Europe towards Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, include Vasco da Gama (1460–1524), a navigator who made the first trip from Europe to India and back by the Cape of Good Hope, discovering the ocean route to the East; Pedro Alvares Cabral (c. 1467/68–c.1520) who, following the path of Gama, claimed Brazil and led the first expedition that linked Europe, Africa, America, and Asia; Diogo Dias, who discovered the eastern coast of Madagascar and rounded the corner of Africa; explorers such as Diogo Fernandes Pereira and Pedro Mascarenhas (1470–1555), among"
"1497, a fleet of Portuguese ships under the command of the Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope. By 16 December, the fleet had passed the Great Fish River on the east coast of South Africa, where Dias had earlier turned back. Da Gama gave the name Natal to the coast he was passing, which in Portuguese means Christmas. Da Gama's fleet proceeded northwards to Zanzibar and later sailed eastwards, eventually reaching India and thereby opening the Cape Route between Europe and Asia. The Dutch East India Company (in the Dutch of the day: ""Vereenigde Oostindische"
"of Good Hope. An expedition headed by Vasco da Gama was sent on a diplomatic and trade mission to India. He followed the route of Dias until he reached Malindi (Kenya) in East Africa. Da Gama bombarded the town and took Indian hostages. Portugal was able to establish a commercial post in Cochin, a port southwest of India. In 1509, another Portuguese explorer, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, successfully reached Malacca, an important trade center in Southeast Asia. Spain came into the scene much later. After completely defeating the last Moorish (Muslim) stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, King Ferdinand and Queen"
"be circumnavigated when he reached the southern tip of the continent, now known as the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498, Vasco da Gama became the first European sailor to reach India by sea. No one used the nickname ""Navigator"" to refer to prince Henry during his lifetime or in the following three centuries. The term was coined by two nineteenth-century German historians: Heinrich Schaefer and Gustave de Veer. Later on it was made popular by two British authors who included it in the titles of their biographies of the prince: Henry Major in 1868 and Raymond Beazley in 1895."
"current and turns back on itself. That oceanic meeting point fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about east of the Cape of Good Hope). When following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1488 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish direct trade relations with the Far East (although Herodotus mentioned a claim that the Phoenicians had done so"
"secure the sea routes linking Europe to Asia. This new sea route around the Cape of Good Hope was firmly secured for Portugal by the activities of Afonso de Albuquerque, who was appointed the Portuguese viceroy of India in 1508. Early Portuguese explorers established bases in Portuguese Mozambique and Zanzibar and oversaw the construction of forts and factories (trading posts) along the African coast, in the Indian subcontinent, and other places in Asia, which solidified the Portuguese hegemony. At Lisbon the Casa da Índia (House of India) was the central organization that managed all Portuguese trade overseas under royal monopoly"