USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -One of the sailors, Bartolomeu Dias passed the Cape of Good Hope and the southernmost point of Africa in 1488. He declared it possible to travel to India by going around Africa. The Portuguese were then able to make an immense profit by using their own ships to retrieve the spices.

Detailed explanation-2: -Portugal, the western-most European country, was one of the primary players in the European Age of Discovery and Exploration. Under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal took the principal role during most of the fifteenth century in searching for a route to Asia by sailing south around Africa.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Cape of Good Hope was first reached by Bartolomeu Dias on 12 March 1488, opening the important sea route to India and the Far East, but European exploration of Africa itself remained very limited during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Detailed explanation-4: -The arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in India in 1498 meant that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover a direct sea route to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope and, subsequently, Southeast Asia.

Detailed explanation-5: -Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapping the coasts of Africa and Asia, then known as the East Indies, and Canada and Brazil (the West Indies), in what came to be known as the Age of Discovery.