Age of Discovery Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Portuguese exploration after Prince Henry ==== In 1460, [[Pedro de Sintra]] reached Sierra Leone. Prince Henry died in November that year after which, given the meagre revenues, exploration was granted to Lisbon merchant [[Fernão Gomes]] in 1469, who in exchange for the monopoly of trade in the Gulf of Guinea had to explore {{convert|100|mi|0|abbr=off}} each year for five years.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 145–48.</ref> With his sponsorship, explorers [[João de Santarém]], [[Pedro Escobar]], Lopo Gonçalves, [[Fernão do Pó]], and Pedro de Sintra made it beyond those goals. They reached the Southern Hemisphere and islands of the Gulf of Guinea, including [[São Tomé and Príncipe]] and [[Elmina]] on the Gold Coast in 1471. There, in what came to be called the "Gold Coast" in what is today [[Ghana]], a thriving alluvial gold trade was found among the natives, Arab and [[Berbers|Berber]] traders. In 1478, during the [[War of the Castilian Succession]], near the coast at [[Elmina]] was a [[Battle of Guinea|large battle]] was fought between a Castilian armada of 35 caravels, and a Portuguese fleet for hegemony of the Guinea trade (gold, slaves, ivory, and melegueta pepper). The war ended with a Portuguese naval victory, followed by the official recognition by the Catholic Monarchs of Portuguese sovereignty over most of the disputed West African territories embodied in the Treaty of Alcáçovas, 1479. This was the first colonial war among European powers.{{cn|date=January 2024}} In 1481, [[John II of Portugal|João II]] decided to build [[Elmina Castle|São Jorge da Mina]] [[factory (trading post)|factory]]. In 1482 the [[Congo River]] was explored by [[Diogo Cão]],<ref>[[#DeLamar 1992|DeLamar 1992]], p. 335.</ref> who in 1486 continued to [[Cape Cross]] (modern [[Namibia]]). [[File:Caravel Boa Esperanca Portugal.jpg|thumb|left|Replica of a [[caravel]]|alt=]] The next crucial breakthrough was in 1488, when [[Bartolomeu Dias]] rounded the southern tip of Africa, which he named Cabo das Tormentas, "Cape of Storms", anchoring at [[Mossel Bay]] and then sailing east as far as the mouth of the [[Great Fish River]], proving the Indian Ocean was accessible from the Atlantic. Simultaneously [[Pero da Covilhã]], sent out travelling secretly overland, had reached [[Ethiopia]] having collected important information about the Red Sea and Quenia coast, suggesting a sea route to the Indies would soon be forthcoming.<ref>[[#Anderson 2000|Anderson 2000]], p. 59.</ref> Soon the cape was renamed by King [[John II of Portugal]] the "[[Cape of Good Hope]]", because of the great optimism engendered by the possibility of a sea route to India, proving false the view that had existed since [[Ptolemy]] that the Indian Ocean was [[Landlocked country|land-locked]]. Based on much later stories of the [[phantom island]] known as [[Bacalao (phantom island)|Bacalao]] and the carvings on [[Dighton Rock]] some have speculated that Portuguese explorer [[João Vaz Corte-Real]] discovered [[Newfoundland]] in 1473, but the sources are considered unreliable.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Lusa|title=Portugueses chegaram à América 19 anos antes de Colombo|url=https://expresso.sapo.pt/cultura/2016-02-27-Portugueses-chegaram-a-America-19-anos-antes-de-Colombo|publisher=Expresso|access-date=2018-07-29|archive-date=2018-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215173553/https://expresso.sapo.pt/cultura/2016-02-27-Portugueses-chegaram-a-America-19-anos-antes-de-Colombo|url-status=live}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page