Portugal Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India and brought economic prosperity to Portugal and its population of 1.7 million residents, helping to start the Portuguese Renaissance. In 1500, the Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real reached what is now Canada and founded the town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, Newfoundland and Labrador, long before the French and English in the 17th century, and being just one of many Portuguese Colonizations of the Americas. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. Ten years later, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa in
William Weston (explorer) working together by this time, with Weston probably being one of the 'great seamen' and Bristol 'companions' of the Venetian explorer, discussed in a diplomatic correspondence of December 1497.. In a letter to the Duke of Milan, the Milanese ambassador noted that some of Cabot's Bristol companions on his recent voyages had accompanied the Venetian to Court and had testified to the truth of the explorer's claims about the lands [North America] he had discovered in the summer of 1497. While the exact year of Weston's independent voyage has yet to be determined, Jones and Condon suggest that it took