Which 15th-century navigator discovered the sea route from Europe to India by the Cape of Good Hope?
15th century in South Africa 15th century in South Africa In 1487-87 Bartolomeu Dias (or Bartholomew Dias) a Portuguese navigator sailed south along the coast of Southern Africa as far as the Orange River, was blown out to sea and made landfall at Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay. But at the Fish River his men refused to go any further. He sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, named by either Dias or his patron, King John II of Portugal for the “great hope it gave of discovering the Indies”. In 1497-99 Vasco da Gama a Portuguese navigator sighted land at St. Helena Bay, doubled
Cape of Good Hope This knowledge, together with the map depiction of the African continent, probably encouraged the Portuguese to intensify their effort to round the tip of Africa. In the Early Modern Era, the first European to reach the cape was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias on 12 March 1488, who named it the "Cape of Storms" ("Cabo das Tormentas"). It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as "Cape of Good Hope" ("Cabo da Boa Esperança") because of the great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India and the East. The Khoikhoi people lived in the cape