Diogo Cão
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2021-12-11

Diogo Cão, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8148 / CC BY SA 3.0

#1450s_births
#15th-century_deaths
#15th-century_explorers_of_Africa
#15th-century_Portuguese_people
#Portuguese_explorers
#Portuguese_navigators
#Maritime_history_of_Portugal
#People_from_Vila_Real,_Portugal
Diogo Cão （Portuguese pronunciation: [diˈoɣu ˈkɐ̃w̃]）, anglicised as Diogo Cam and also known as Diego Cam, was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most notable navigators of the Age of Discovery.
He made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa in the 1480s, exploring the Congo River and the coasts of the present-day Angola and Namibia.
Little is known about the early life of Diogo Cão.
According to tradition, he was born in Vila Real, Portugal, around the middle of the 15th century.
His grandfather, Goncalo Cão, had fought for Portuguese independence at the Battle of Aljubarrota.
By 1480, Cão was sailing off the coast of Africa in the service of João II. There is a record that he returned to Portugal with captured Spanish ships.
Diogo Cão When the Treaty of Alcáçovas （1480） confirmed Portugal's monopoly on trade and exploration along Africa's west coast, João II moved quickly to secure and expand his hold on the region.
In 1481, a fleet of ten ships was dispatched to the Gold Coast to construct a fortress known as Sao Jorge da Mina.
The fort would serve as a commercial center for trade and an important point of resupply for Portuguese voyages.
João II also re-instituted a program of exploration southward along the African coast, an initiative that had been held in abeyance during the war with Spain.
Diogo Cão was selected to lead João's first voyage of exploration in 1482.
The padrão bearing the arms of Portugal erected by Cão at Cape St.
Mary When King John II of Portugal restarted the work of Henry the Navigator, he sent out Cão （probably around midsummer 1482） to explore the African coast south of the equator.
Diogo Cão filled his ship with stone pillars surmounted ...