Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India It is often regarded as the most important work of Portuguese literature. The work celebrates the discovery of a sea route to India by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. King Manuel did not share that opinion. Keeping the D. João II plan, he went ahead to equip the ships and chose Vasco da Gama as the leader of this expedition and the captain of the armada. According to the original plan, John II had appointed his father, Stephen da Gama, to head the armada; but by the time of implementing the plan, both were deceased. Portuguese were after spices,
Time in Portugal Empire: although almost all continental Portugal is located west of the 7.5°W meridian (i.e. in the theoretical zone of time zone), for mainland Portugal it was adopted as its time zone. By the same law, time zone was adopted for the Azores and Cape Verde, for Madeira and Portuguese Guinea, for São Tomé and Príncipe and São João Baptista de Ajudá, for Angola, for Mozambique, for Portuguese India and for Macau and Portuguese Timor. These time zones were adopted on 1 January 1912. Daylight saving time ("Hora de Verão", in Portuguese) was observed for the first time in 1916, during