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Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage

In November 1497 Gama’s ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope on the outward India voyage. The dated waypoint is not Dias’s 1488 rounding and not the 1498 Malabar landfall. In the causal graph this event strengthens the driver Industrial-Policy Activism.

Read the full account

In November 1497 Gama’s ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope on the outward India voyage. The dated waypoint is not Dias’s 1488 rounding and not the 1498 Malabar landfall. Vasco da Gama’s documented role is: He took the fleet past the Cape in November 1497 on a wide Atlantic tack. Dias had rounded before; Gama commanded this passage. Later editors, printers, and excavators remain named where they appear.

Context

A wide Atlantic tack, scurvy later on, and unnamed pilots already structure the file. Rounding a cape is not unique authorship of the African coast. Later national myth is not 1497. Named others on the file: Unnamed pilots and crews, and Bartolomeu Dias as predecessor, share the waypoint. The public setting is the file around 1497-11-22. The instrument stays Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage. The setting of Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage is the public file around 1497-11-22. Driver industrial-policy-activism is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

Why it matters

Complex shared seamanship. Welfare reading improving. The attached mechanism is A dated Cape rounding on the India voyage put a completed oceanic waypoint into the carreira file, distinct from Calicut arrival. Lag to any modern indicator is not treated as zero. This path is attached because the mechanism is named from this act, not because a driver list needed coverage. The welfare reading on this path is improving.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Mixed effects of Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage are separate paths.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Vasco da Gama

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.4 · verified

    He took the fleet past the Cape in November 1497 on a wide Atlantic tack. Dias had rounded before; Gama commanded this passage.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactGama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage
    2. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

    impact weight 0.35 · Effect from 22 November 1497 · verified

    A dated Cape rounding on the India voyage put a completed oceanic waypoint into the carreira file, distinct from Calicut arrival.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — Vasco da GamaEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama — public EnglishProject Gutenberg / Hakluyt translation · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Britannica and the later journal independently date Gama’s 1497 Cape passage as distinct from 1498 Calicut. Official: Britannica — Vasco da Gama, Cape of Good Hope 1497 (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent: Journal of the First Voyage — Cape passage English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22599 (opens in a new tab); Project Gutenberg). The two URLs are different pages. Where the carrier is a later edition or a received narrative, that limit is stated rather than upgraded to an autograph. Official carrier: Britannica — Vasco da Gama, Cape of Good Hope 1497 (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent carrier: Journal of the First Voyage — Cape passage English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22599 (opens in a new tab); Project Gutenberg).

Established: 1497 outward Cape rounding under Gama. Not established: that Dias’s 1488 is this same fleet. Established: a sourced public record of Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage under 1497-11-22.

Shared responsibility is part of Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage. Naming Vasco da Gama does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1497-11-22 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorVasco da Gama
  2. contributed toFactGama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage
  3. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Gama’s fleet rounds the Cape of Good Hope on the outward voyage. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/vdg-cape-1497

https://factrail.ai/facts/vdg-cape-1497

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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