Bartolomeu Dias Achievements

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The greatest European explorer to ever live was not Christopher Columbus, it was the one and only Bartolomeu Dias. Bartolomeu Dias’s life was full of adventure and hardship. Through numerous amounts of research, Bartolomeu Dias took a gamble and sailed to the southernmost tip of Africa by reaching the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic. He is definitely one of the greatest European explorers to ever live because no other explorer has ever accomplished this achievement before.
To begin with, no one truly knows when Bartolomeu Dias was born. The only information historians know about his date of birth was that he was born into an aristocratic family in 1450 in Portugal, and he ended up getting married and having two children. The reason for the …show more content…

Along with his crew, he brought along 6 African men who had previously been brought to Europe by other explorers. During the voyage to Africa, it is believed that Bartolomeu had turned twenty-eight degrees south to avoid treacherous storms that he had learned about from his prior knowledge. His decision was extremely risky and many of his crew did not agree with it. Therefore, Dias held a small council to decide whether or not they should do it. The people wanting to go forward out numbered the people who wanted to go back His crew members were scared because the food was becoming scarce, but they still trusted their captain. Dias shockingly turned out be right, and in early January, 1488, the crew spotted a glimpse of land which was 300 miles east of present day (Cape of Good Hope) The courageous man sent out 4 of the 6 men along the coast with bags of gold, silver, jewels, and other forms of European wealth. This exchange was a sign showing and telling the Africans that they came in peace. Many Africans however did not agree with this European voyage into their lands. They pelted rocks and stones into Dias’s ship until one of Dias’s men shot one of the tribesmen with an arrow. The two remaining Africans stayed back with seven Portuguese sailors whose jobs were to guard and protect the ship in which they had voyaged on. Moreover, Bartolomeu further observed the second cape and named it “Cape of Storms” for its cruel and gloomy