Question: Where is the monument to the first explorer to discover new land west of Africa and the continent of the region sharing a border with Champagne-Ardenne?

portuguese discoveries (portuguese: descobrimentos portugueses) are the numerous territories and maritime routes discovered 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 overseas exploration, discovering and mapping the coasts of africa, canada, asia and brazil, in what became 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. <SEP> Portugal's neighbouring fellow Iberian rival, Castile, had begun to establish its rule over the Canary Islands, located off the west African coast, in 1402, but then became distracted by internal Iberian politics and the repelling of Islamic invasion attempts and raids through most of the 15th century. Only late in the century, following the unification of the crowns of Castile and Aragon and the completion of the reconquista, did an emerging modern Spain become fully committed to the search for new trade routes overseas. In 1492 the joint rulers conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada, which had been providing Castile with African goods through tribute, and decided to fund Christopher Columbus's expedition in the hope of bypassing Portugal's monopoly on west African sea routes, to reach ``the Indies ''(east and south Asia) by travelling west. The Crown of Aragon had been an important maritime potentate in the Mediterranean, controlling territories in eastern Spain, southwestern France, major islands like Sicily, Malta, and the Kingdom of Naples and Sardinia, with mainland possessions as far as Greece. Twice before, in 1485 and 1488, Columbus had presented the project to king John II of Portugal, who rejected it. <SEP> the western edge of the oklahoma panhandle is out of alignment with its texas border. the oklahoma/new mexico border is actually 2.1 to 2.2 miles east of the texas line. the border between texas and new mexico was set first as a result of a survey by spain in 1819. it was then set along the 103rd meridian. in the 1890s, when oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered that the texas line was not set along the 103rd meridian. surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, and the actual 103rd meridian was approximately 2.2 miles to the east. it was much easier to leave the mistake as it was than for texas to cede land to new mexico to correct the original surveying error. the placement of the oklahoma/new mexico border represents the true 103rd meridian. <SEP> The sculpted bronze bust of Christopher Columbus sits atop a pedestal that has relief carvings on its front, left and right sides. Christopher Columbus is a public artwork by Italian artist Enrico Vittori and located on the grounds of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The sculpture is installed in the southwest corner of the Indiana Statehouse lawn and was presented in 1920 as a gift from Italian immigrant communities in Indiana. <SEP> The trees and rivers of the Ardennes provided the charcoal industry assets that enabled the great industrial period of Wallonia in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was arguably the second great industrial region of the world, after England. The greater region maintained an industrial eminence into the 20th century, after coal replaced charcoal in metallurgy. <SEP> Science and technology in Wallonia, the southern region of Belgium (Europe), is well developed with the presence of several universities and research institutes.