Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa
Bartolomeu Dias, blown far south of the coast by a storm, ran east and made landfall beyond the continent's southern extremity, proving that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans connect. His crews compelled him to turn back at the Great Fish River; he sighted the cape itself on the homeward leg and reached Lisbon in December 1488. The route to India was now known to exist and was not attempted for another nine years.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Bartolomeu Dias · person · Portugal · not located
- Cape of Good Hope · geographic_feature · South Africa
- The Cape route (Carreira da Índia) · trade route · Atlantic and Indian Oceans — Lisbon to Malabar via the Cape of Good Hope · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825
The standard single-volume account of Portuguese expansion: Ceuta, the African coast, the Cape route, the carreira da Índia, the Estado da Índia and the institutions that ran them. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. Boxer is a mid-twentieth-century imperial history and its framing has been substantially revised by later work, particularly on Asian agency and on the limits of Portuguese control; this pack uses it for structure, not for interpretation.
Hutchinson · 1969 · Partly verified
Charles R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825 (London: Hutchinson, 1969)
Recorded on Bartolomeu Dias
- Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa
- Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut
- Cabral sights the coast of Brazil
- Albuquerque takes Malacca
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Albuquerque takes Malacca · 1511-08
- Cabral sights the coast of Brazil · 1500-04-22
- Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut · 1498-05-20