Casa da Índia
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The Casa da Índia was a Portuguese state-run commercial organization during the Age of Discovery. It regulated international trade and the Portuguese Empire's territories, colonies, and factories across Asia and Africa. Central to the Casa da Índia's objectives was the establishment and protection of a Portuguese mare clausum in the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and the Indies.
Ribeira Palace (on the right), where the Casa da Índia was headquartered, and its naval yards (on the left), in 1575.
Elmina Castle, built in 1482 on the Portuguese Gold Coast, is the oldest European building in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Casa da Guiné e Mina was charged with managing and taxing Elmina along with the other Portuguese factories on the Gulf of Guinea.
The 2nd Portuguese India Armada, commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, discovered Brazil on its way to India.
King Manuel I of Portugal created the Casa da Índia and oversaw a successful expansionist period of the Portuguese Empire in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Portuguese maritime exploration resulted in the numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese as a result of their intensive maritime journeys during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapping the coasts of Africa and Asia, then known as the East Indies, and Canada and Brazil, in what came to be known as the Age of Discovery.
The Cantino planisphere, made by an anonymous cartographer in 1502, shows the world as it was understood by Europeans after their great explorations at the end of the fifteenth century.
Vasco da Gama lands in Calicut on May 20th 1498.
Prince Henry the Navigator, generally credited as the driving force behind Portuguese maritime exploration.
The caravel was an existing ship type that was prominent in Portuguese exploration from about 1440