US History Makeup
Read the article. Write a 250 word essay answering the question and email it to
[email protected] or turn it into the box.
Explain the adventures the explorers would have encountered using Bartolomeu Dias’ life as an
example.
The Life and Times of Bartolomeu Dias (1450-1500)
At the time of Dias's birth:
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French conquered English forces at Formigny, Normandy
Glasgow University is founded
Fourteen-year civil war ended in Swiss Confederacy
At the time of Dias's death:
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Venice began four-year war with Ottoman Empire
Vasco Nunez de Gama returned to Portugal form Mozambique with pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon,
and cloves
London had another epidemic of the Black Death; killed thousands in next two years
The times:
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Late 1400s-1660: Renaissance
1422-1461: Reign of Henry VI in England
1461-1483: Reign of Edward IV in England
1455-1485: War of the Roses
1483-1485: Reign of Richard III in England
Dias's contemporaries:
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Isabella I (1451-1504) Spanish queen
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) Italian explorer
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian artist
Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) Italian explorer
Juan Ponce de León (1460-1521) Spanish explorer
Montezuma II (1466-1520) Aztec emperor
Selected world events:
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1455: Johannes Gutenberg used printing press
1462: Vlad Tepes the Impaler, the original Count Dracula, established his reputation by killing
20,000 Turks
1494: Columbus discovered Jamaica
Spain and Portugal signed treaty to divide the New World
Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa.
As a result of the voyages of Diogo Cao, Portuguese ships had sailed almost to the southern tip
of Africa. King John II was convinced that it was possible to sail around the continent. He
decided to send out a new expedition under the command of Bartolomeu Dias, a knight of the
royal household, who was descended from an old seafaring family and who had headed many
trading voyages to Guinea on the west coast of Africa. He was put in charge of two caravels and
a supply-ship. The supply-ship was the solution to the problem of supplying long-distance
journeys: it was to set up a camp along the way so that the ships would be able to re-provision on
the return trip.
The expedition left Lisbon in August 1487 and reached Walvis Bay, in what is now Namibia,
without much difficulty by December. South of Walvis Bay the ships encountered very strong
headwinds, which drove them out to sea, away from the sight of land. They headed south for 13
days before they were able to turn and head eastward to regain the shore. But they did not find
the shoreline they expected. In a sudden burst of inspiration, Dias is said to have realized that
they must have sailed beyond the southern tip of Africa and that in order to regain it they would
have to head north. This they did, and on February 3, 1488 he sighted land, land that was heading
northeastward, proof that they had rounded the cape.
The Portuguese saw African herdsmen and cows, and Dias named his new discovery the Bahia
dos Vaqueiros, Cowboy Bay. It is now called Mossel Bay on the south coast of South Africa.
Dias insisted on continuing eastward but only made it as far as the Great Fish River, where the
South African coast starts heading north before his worried crew forced him to turn back.
On the way home, Dias passed the great cape that is the southern tip of the African continent. He
named it Stormy Cape, but the new king, Manoel I, with a better sense of advertising, called it
the Cape of Good Hope, because it presented hope of reaching India.
Dias stopped and took on the provisions that had been left behind with the store-ship on the coast
of Angola. He returned to Lisbon in December, 1488 after an absence of 17 months and 17 days.
Dias continued in the service of the King. On March 4, 1493 he was sent over in a rowboat to
talk to the captain of a Spanish ship that had anchored in Lisbon harbor. It turned out to be
Christopher Columbus, who reported to Dias on the new land he had found on the other side of
the Atlantic.
The Portuguese, however, were more interested in the possibilities opened up by Dias's
expedition to the south: it was possible to sail around Africa to get to India. This information led
King Manoel to send out the expedition under Vasco da Gama that was to fulfill the promise of
Dias's voyage.
Following da Gama's return, King Manoel immediately sent out a large expedition of thirteen
ships under the command of a young nobleman, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, that left Lisbon on March
9, 1500. Bartolomeu Dias captained one of the ships in this expedition. Cabral's ships sailed
much farther west than those of da Gama and were rewarded on April 22 by the sight of a new
land—the coast of Brazil. After spending some time there, Cabral headed east and ran into very
bad weather on his way around the Cape of Good Hope. During this storm, three of his ships
were sunk, including the one commanded by Bartolomeu Dias.