The Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, is an informal and loosely defined term for the period in European history in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture and which was the beginning of globalization.

A period beginning in the early 1400s and ending in the late 1700s in which European explorers and merchants discovered areas of the world yet unseen by Western Europe. These expeditions led to the discovery of new lands, new markets, and new technology

By the early 1400s, Europeans were ready to venture beyond their borders. The Renaissance encouraged a new spirit of adventure and curiosity. This spirit of adventure, along with several other important reasons, prompted Europeans to explore the world around them.

7.59 Identify the significance of the voyages and routes of discovery of the following explorers by their sponsoring country:

• England: Henry Hudson

• France: Jacques Cartier

• Portugal: Vasco da Gama, Bartolomeu Dias

• Spain: Christopher Columbus, Hernando de Soto, Ferdinand Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci

Bartolomeu Dias

Explorer / Navigator

Date Of Birth: c. 1450

Date Of Death: 17 May 1500

Place Of Birth: Portugal

Best Known As: Portuguese discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope.

Bartolomeu Dias was a Portugese navigator whose 1487-88 Atlantic voyage around the southern tip of Africa opened sea routes between Europe and Asia. In 1486 King João II (King John II) assigned Dias, a member of the royal court, to command a voyage with both spiritual and material aspirations: Dias was to search for the lands of Prester John -- a legendary Christian priest and African king -- and challenge the Muslim dominance of trade with Asia. By 1488 Dias had unknowingly rounded the African continent in a storm and made landfall at what is now Mossel Bay. On his return voyage he discovered what he called the Cape of Storms (Cabo Tormentoso), later re-named the Cape of Good Hope (Caboda Bõa Esperança) by João. Although Dias did not find any sign of an African Christian, his voyage established a sea route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and Asia. In 1497 Dias accompanied Vasco da Gama on a voyage as far as the Cape Verde Islands, and in 1500 he joined Pedro Alvares Cabral's westward expedition. Dias's ship went down in a storm and he perished at sea sometime in late May (Cabral went on to make landfall in Brazil).

Dias’s brother, Pero Dias, was also part of the 1487-88 voyage, commanding the supply ship… The Cape of Good Hope is sometimes thought to be the southernmost tip of the African continent, but that title belongs to Cape Agulhas… His name is sometimes spelled Bartholomew Diaz.

(Credit - www.infoplease.com)