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 (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.
From the passage provided, extract the what were some of the key years and discoveries of portuguese maritime exploration?
In 1419, the portuguese started their maritime explorations along the West Africa's coast. The goal was to reach India by sea, by going around Africa. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reaching the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean. In 1498, Vasco da Gama finally reached India.
By 1500 also reached discovered Brazil and reached Japan in 1542.