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| 1415 |
| | | A Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, becomes fascinated by exploration down the coast of Africa and commissions successive voyages | |
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| c. 1420 |
| | | The Portuguese, discovering the lush and uninhabited island of Madeira, send colonists to settle it | |
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| 1446 |
| | | Portugal claims ownership of the region of Guinea, subsequently the centre of their slave trade on the west African coast | |
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| c. 1450 |
| | | The caravel, a sailing ship developed in the Mediterranean and used down the west coast of Africa, is adapted by the Portuguese for Atlantic use | |
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| 1466 |
| | | The Portuguese settlers on the Cape Verde islands are granted a monopoly on the new slave trade | |
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| 1483 |
| | | The Portuguese establish a further presence on the west coast of Africa, at the mouth of the Congo river | |
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| 1488 |
| | | Bartolomeu Dias, sailing for the king of Portugal, becomes the first European navigator to round the Cape of Good Hope | |
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| 1492 |
| | | A French privateer off the west coast of Ghana is the first to plunder a Portuguese vessel carrying home African gold | |
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| 1493 |
| | | Pope Alexander VI draws a line through the Atlantic, dividing new discoveries between Spain (west) and Portugal (east) | |
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| 1494 |
| | | In negotiations about the New World at Tordesillas, the king of Portugal insists on a new demarcation line which later brings him Brazil | |
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