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eventVerified

Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route

On 8 July 1497 Gama’s fleet left the Lisbon/Restelo shore for India by the Cape. The dated departure is not the 20 May 1498 Calicut landfall and not the 1499 return. In the causal graph this event strengthens the driver Industrial-Policy Activism.

Read the full account

On 8 July 1497 Gama’s fleet left the Lisbon/Restelo shore for India by the Cape. The dated departure is not the 20 May 1498 Calicut landfall and not the 1499 return. Vasco da Gama’s documented role is: He commanded four ships sailing from Restelo. Manuel I commissioned; unnamed crews, priests, and convicts sailed; he did not uniquely invent the Cape. Departure is not arrival. Later editors, printers, and excavators remain named where they appear.

Context

Bartolomeu Dias’s earlier rounding, Manuel’s commission, and unnamed carpenters already sat in the file. A departure is not unique seamanship of every later carreira. Later Jerónimos mythology is not 1497 masonry by his hand. Named others on the file: Manuel I as commissioner, unnamed crews, and Dias as predecessor of the route share the sailing. The public setting is the file around 1497-07-08. The instrument stays Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route. The setting of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route is the public file around 1497-07-08. Driver industrial-policy-activism is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage.

Why it matters

Complex shared crown expedition. Welfare reading improving. The attached mechanism is A dated departure opened a completed royal Cape-route expedition as an industrial-policy instrument of the Portuguese crown. 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.

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

Who was responsible

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

  • Vasco da Gama

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.48 · verified

    He commanded four ships sailing from Restelo. Manuel I commissioned; unnamed crews, priests, and convicts sailed; he did not uniquely invent the Cape.

What changed

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

    1. FactGama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route
    2. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

    impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 8 July 1497 · verified

    A dated departure opened a completed royal Cape-route expedition as an industrial-policy instrument of the Portuguese crown.

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 English journal independently date the 8 July 1497 Lisbon departure. Official: Britannica — Vasco da Gama, 1497 departure (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent: A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama — later 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, 1497 departure (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent carrier: A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama — later English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22599 (opens in a new tab); Project Gutenberg).

Established: 8 July 1497 departure. Not established: that Jerónimos monastery is this act, or that 1498 landfall is this same day. Established: a sourced public record of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route under 1497-07-08.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Departure is not arrival. Mixed effects of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route are separate paths.

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

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

Shared responsibility is part of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route. Naming Vasco da Gama does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1497-07-08 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.

Causal path

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

  1. ActorVasco da Gama
  2. contributed toFactGama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route
  3. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/vdg-lisbon-depart-1497

https://factrail.ai/facts/vdg-lisbon-depart-1497

Accessed 16 October 2026.

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

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