Bartolomeu Dias
Portuguese explorer
Quick Facts
- In full:
- Bartolomeu Dias de Novais
- Bartolomeu also spelled:
- Bartholomew
- Dias also spelled:
- Diaz
- Born:
- c. 1450
- Died:
- May 29, 1500, at sea, near Cape of Good Hope
Bartolomeu Dias (born c. 1450—died May 29, 1500, at sea, near Cape of Good Hope) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who led the first European expedition to round the Cape of Good Hope (1488), opening the sea route to Asia via the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He is usually considered to be the greatest of the Portuguese pioneers who explored the Atlantic during the 15th century. Almost nothing is known of Dias’s early life. His supposed descent from one of Prince Henry the Navigator’s pilots is unproved, and his rank was the comparatively modest one of squire of the ...(100 of 873 words)