History of Western civilization Genovese born mariner, Christopher Columbus set out under the auspices of the Crown of Castile (Spain) to seek an oversea route to the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean. Rather than Asia, Columbus landed in the Bahamas, in the Caribbean. Spanish colonization followed and Europe established Western Civilization in the Americas. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama led the first sailing expedition directly from Europe to India in 1497-1499, by the Atlantic and Indian oceans, opening up the possibility of trade with the East other than via perilous overland routes like the Silk Road. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer working
Time in Portugal re-introduced, it could never be observed as CEST (), and the only solution was to re-adopt WET as standard time. So, in 1976, Portugal adopted WET () as its standard time. DST started to be observed every year as WEST () usually from early April to later September. From 1981 on, DST started to be observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in September. In 1986, time in Portugal began to be calculated in accordance with UTC, instead of GMT.<ref name="Decree-Law 44-B/86"> Decree-Law 44-B/86, 7 March 1986 (in Portuguese). Retrieved 19 May 2013.</ref> In 1992, during