Heading south along the African coast.
Portugal is gradually linking North African wars, island sugar, human trafficking, defensive trade and coastal navigation. By 1488, the complete Indian route had not yet appeared, but the southern end of Africa had proved to be bypassable.
- 01.01Strait of Gibraltar · Conquest
Portugal took Ceuta, expansion began with war.
Portugal seized the port of Ceuta in North Africa with large military expeditions, linking war, commercial objectives and the subsequent decades of Atlantic expansion.
- 01.02West Africa Coast · Route
Ernest bypassed Cape Bohador.
The advance along the West African coast was accelerated by the passage and return of Gil Eanes across an area that had long been regarded by Portuguese navigators as insurmountable.
- 01.03Madeira/West Africa · Trade
Sugar, gold and the enslaved enter the same course.
The Madeira sugar industry began using bonded labour; the Elmina Castle, built in 1482, fixed the West African gold trade as a defensive stronghold.
- 01.04I'm looking forward to it. · Route
Diyas bypassed the southern end of Africa.
For the first time in a documented European voyage, the Diyas fleet bypassed the southern end of Africa, proving that the Atlantic Ocean was capable of connecting the Indian Ocean.