Bartholomew Diaz Statue (Cape Town)

Wat 'n ou legend!

Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450 - May 29, 1500) was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the the southern tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.

He originally named the Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by John II as the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the opening of a route to the east. The discovery of the passage around Africa was significant because for the first time Europeans could trade directly with India and the other parts of Asia, bypassing the overland route through of the Middle East, with its expensive middle men. This would eventually lead to a rise of the Atlantic trading countries and a general decline of Middle East and Mediterranean countries, which affected history for centuries afterwards.

He died off the Cape of Good Hope when his vessel was wrecked in a storm. The official report of the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope has been lost.