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Responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade with other continents through the systematic exploration of Western Africa, the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the search for new routes.
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King John II of Portugal appointed Bartholomeu, on 10 October 1487, to head an expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route to India.
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On the evening of August 3,1492, Columbus departed from Castilian Palos de la Frontera with three ships (Nina,Pinta,and the Santa Maria).
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Columbus set sail on September 24,1493 with a much larger fleet with two naos and 15 caravels.
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The treaty of Tordesillas was signed by Spain and Portugal to divide the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain.
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According to the abstract of Columbus’ journal made by Bartolomé de Las Casas, the object of the third voyage was to verify the existence of a continent that King John II of Portugal claimed was located to the southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.
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Brazil was discovered on April 22nd, 1500, by a Portuguese colonizer called Pedro Alvares Cabral. The first sight of land for him was a mountain.
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Columbus made a fourth voyage, nominally in search of a westward passage to the Indian Ocean. Accompanied by his stepbrother Bartolomeo, Diego Mendez, and his 13-year-old son Fernando, he left Cádiz, Spain on May 12, 1502, with his flagship, as well as the Gallega, Vizcaína, and Santiago de Palos. He sailed to Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue the Portuguese soldiers who he heard were under siege by the Moors.
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Hernan Cortez was in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization.He landed on the coast of Yucatan with 11 ships.
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It is belived that Leif Eriksson landed 400 years earlyer in present-day Canada
