The continent was South America, and the land he had claimed for Portugal later came to be known as Brazil. He explored the coast, realizing that the large land mass was probably a continent, and dispatched a ship to notify King Manuel I of the new territory. As the new land was within the Portuguese sphere according to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, Cabral claimed it for the Portuguese Crown. His fleet of 13 ships sailed far into the western Atlantic Ocean, perhaps intentionally, and made landfall (April 1500) on what he initially assumed to be a large island. Although the previous expedition of Vasco da Gama to India, on its sea route, had recorded signs of land west of the southern Atlantic Ocean (in 1497), Cabral led the first known expedition to have touched four continents: Europe, Africa, America, and Asia. The undertaking had the aim of returning with valuable spices and of establishing trade relations in India-bypassing the monopoly on the spice trade then in the hands of Arab, Turkish and Italian merchants. He was appointed to head an expedition to India in 1500, following Vasco da Gama's newly-opened route around Africa. While details of Cabral's early life remain unclear, it is known that he came from a minor noble family and received a good education. He was the first human in history to ever be on four continents, uniting all of them in his famous voyage of 1500, where he also conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil.

On the other hand, his discovery of the sea route to India made possible successful, future Portuguese trade.Ī map of Africa from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia, published in Basel, Switzerland in 1559.Pedro Álvares Cabral ( European Portuguese: born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia c. His gifts to its ruler were not impressive enough. ĭa Gama’s attempt to trade in Calicut wasn’t very successful. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean. The Latin text in the bottom left-hand corner of the map tells the tale of Vasco da Gama. Dias' discovery paved the way for Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India. Ptolemy had been wrong to think that the Indian Ocean was land-locked.

His voyage showed that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans flowed into each other. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope). Münster’s map on the right reflects the discoveries of Portuguese explorers, Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama.

What did vasco da gama accomplish