Portugal–South Africa relations as part of a land claim). Bartolomeu Dias did so in 1486, and Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, en route to India. South Africa had close relations with Portugal, particularly during the time that Mozambique and Angola were Portuguese colonies. South Africa under apartheid was ruled by the National Party, which shared common ground with the anti-communist "Estado Novo" regime of António Salazar in Portugal. Following Britain's decision to grant independence to its colonies in Africa, the government of Hendrik Verwoerd feared that the newly-independent states would fall under the influence
Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil Portugal on April 26, 1821. For thirteen years, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal in what some historians call a "metropolitan reversal", i.e., a colony exercising governance over the entirety of the (in this case Portuguese) empire. The period in which the court was located in Rio brought significant changes to the city and its residents, and can be interpreted through several perspectives. It had profound impacts on Brazilian society, economics, infrastructure, and politics. The transfer of the king and the royal court "represented the first step toward Brazilian independence, since the king