Title: History of cartography
Content:  (also known as the Age of Exploration). Spain and Portugal were magnets for the talent, science and technology from the Italian city-states. Portugal's methodical expeditions started in 1419 along West Africa's coast under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator, with Bartolomeu Dias reaching the Cape of Good Hope and entering the Indian Ocean in 1488. Ten years later, in 1498, Vasco da Gama led the first fleet around Africa to India, arriving in Calicut and starting a maritime route from Portugal to India. Soon, after Pedro Álvares Cabral reaching Brazil (1500), explorations proceed to Southeast Asia, having sent the first direct European maritime trade and diplomatic missions to Ming China 
Title: Portugal
Content:  of Portugal was later proclaimed following the Battle of Ourique (1139), and independence from León was recognized by the Treaty of Zamora (1143). In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global maritime and commercial empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. During this period, today referred to as the Age of Discovery, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration with the discovery of what would become Brazil (1500). During this time Portugal monopolized the spice trade, divided the world into hemispheres of dominion with Castile, and the empire expanded with military campaigns in Asia. However, events such as 
Title: Portuguese Empire
Content:  Age of Discovery, and the power and influence of the Kingdom of Portugal would eventually expand across the globe. In the wake of the Reconquista, Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos in 1418–19, using recent developments in navigation, cartography, and maritime technology such as the caravel, with the aim of finding a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice-trade. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the crown's secret design, Pedro Álvares Cabral reached what would be Brazil. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors 
Title: History of Portugal (1415–1578)
Content: 1336 — Possible first expedition to the Canary Islands with additional expeditions in 1340 and 1341, though this is disputed. ; 1412 — Prince Henry, the Navigator, orders the first expeditions to the African Coast and Canary Islands. ; 1419 — João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discovered Porto Santo island, in the Madeira group. ; 1420 — The same sailors and Bartolomeu Perestrelo discovered the island of Madeira, which at once began to be colonized. ; 1422 — Cape Nao, the limit of Moorish navigation is passed as the African Coast is mapped. ; 1427 — Diogo de Silves discovered the Azores, which was 
Title: History of Portugal (1415–1578)
Content:  The history of the Kingdom of Portugal from the Illustrious Generation of the early 15th century to the fall of the House of Aviz in the late 16th century has been named the "Portuguese golden age" (Portuguese: Século de Ouro; "golden century") and the "Portuguese Renaissance". During this period, Portugal was the first European power to begin building a colonial empire as Portuguese sailors and explorers discovered an eastern route to India (that rounded the Cape of Good Hope) as well as several Atlantic archipelagos (like the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde) and colonized the African coast and Brazil. They also explored the Indian Ocean and established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, sending the first direct European maritime trade and diplomatic missions to Ming China and to Japan. The Portuguese Renaissance produced a plethora of poets, historians, critics, theologians, and moralists. The Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende (printed 1516) is taken to mark the transition from Old Portuguese to the modern Portuguese language.
Title: Portuguese discoveries
Content:  Portuguese discoveries (Portuguese: Descobrimentos portugueses) are the numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese as a result of their intensive maritime exploration 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 (the West Indies), in what came to be known as the Age of Discovery. Methodical expeditions started in 1419 along West Africa's coast under the sponsorship of prince Henry the Navigator, with Bartolomeu Dias reaching the Cape of Good Hope and entering the Indian Ocean in 1488. Ten years later, in 1498, Vasco da Gama led the first fleet around Africa to India, arriving in Calicut and starting a maritime route from Portugal to India. Portuguese explorations then proceeded to southeast Asia, where they reached Japan in 1542, forty-four years after their first arrival in India. In 1500, the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral became the first European to discover Brazil.
Title: Lagos, Portugal
Content:  became an independent jurisdiction under the rule of King Peter I in 1361. King John I assembled his fleet in the harbour of Lagos, before setting sail for the siege and conquest of the city of Ceuta in 1415. This was the first step in opening the Muslim world to medieval Europe, which in fact led to the Age of Discovery with Portuguese explorers sailing across the whole world. By the 15th century, Lagos became the centre of Portuguese maritime exploration, with ships ordered south to trace the shoreline of Africa in order to find routes to India. Infante Henry the Navigator, third son of King John, lived most of the time 
Title: Portuguese people
Content:  people began an Age of Exploration which started in 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta and culminated in an empire with territories that are now part of over 50 countries. The Portuguese Empire lasted nearly 600 years, seeing its end when Macau was returned to China in 1999. The discovery of several lands unknown to Europeans in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania (southwest Pacific Ocean), forged the Portuguese Empire described as the first global maritime and commercial empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers in the 15th and 16th centuries. Portugal paved the way to the subsequent domination of Western civilisation by other neighbouring European nations.
Title: Age of Discovery
Content:  The Portuguese began systematically exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa in 1418, under the sponsorship of Infante Dom Henrique (Prince Henry). Under the direction of Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese developed a new, much lighter ship, the caravel, which could sail farther and faster, and, above all, was highly maneuverable and could sail much nearer the wind, or into the wind. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reached the Indian Ocean by this route. In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon funded Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus's plan to sail west to reach the Indies by crossing the Atlantic. Columbus encountered a continent uncharted by most Europeans (though it had 
Title: Age of Discovery
Content:  In 1297 King Dinis of Portugal took personal interest in exports and in 1317 he made an agreement with Genoese merchant sailor Manuel Pessanha (Pessagno), appointing him first admiral of the Portuguese navy, with the goal of defending the country against Muslim pirate raids. Outbreaks of bubonic plague led to severe depopulation in the second half of the 14th century: only the sea offered alternatives, with most population settling in fishing and trading coastal areas. Between 1325 and 1357 Afonso IV of Portugal encouraged maritime commerce and ordered the first explorations. The Canary Islands, already known to the Genoese, were claimed as officially discovered under patronage 

Question: who began the age of exploration in portugal?
Answer: King Dinis of Portugal.
Afonso IV of Portugal.
Prince Henry.