Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India 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
Immigration to Portugal Immigration to Portugal As of 2007 Portugal had 10,617,575 inhabitants of whom 332,137, or 3.13%, were legal immigrants (51,7% female, 48,3% male). Brazilians, Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and Russians, Asians as well as Africans are the immigrants in the country. Portugal, long a country of emigration, has now become a country of net immigration, and not just from the last Portuguese overseas territories in India (until 1961), Africa (until 1975), and Far East Asia (until 1999). Since the 1990s, along with a boom in construction, several new waves of Ukrainian, Brazilian, people from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa and other