How did Portugal contribute to the conquest of the worlds oceans?
Inspired by Prince Henry “the Navigator,” Portuguese pioneered exploration of the Atlantic and Indian oceans in a series of historic 15th and 16th century voyages. They fished off the coast of North America. They colonized Madeira and began the Atlantic slave trade by bringing African slaves there. They gradually explored the west coast of Africa before Bartolomeu Dias became the first recorded captain to round the southern tip of Africa and enter the Indian Ocean. Portugal established colonies in Africa and Asia as well as the huge colony of Brazil. What’s more, it was a Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan, who, while sailing for Spain, was the first captain to round the treacherous southern tip of South America. He crossed the Pacific Ocean and then died in the Philippines, but some of his crew made it back to Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.
