Question 1

True or false: Dias personally discovered the sea route to India during his first voyage.

Accepted Answer

False. Dias never reached India; he only rounded the Cape. Vasco da Gama completed the route to India a decade later.

Question 2

True or false: Dias named the Cape of Good Hope the 'Cape of Storms' before King John II changed it.

Accepted Answer

True. Dias called it Cabo das Tormentas due to rough weather; King John II renamed it Cabo da Boa Esperança for the trade route promise.

Question 3

True or false: Bartolomeu Dias originally planned to sail to India but turned back after rounding the Cape.

Accepted Answer

True. Dias's 1488 expedition aimed for India, but his crew forced him to turn back at the Great Fish River, before India was reached.

Question 4

True or false: Dias's expedition was the first to map the entire African coastline.

Accepted Answer

False. Dias mapped only the southern tip; earlier explorers like Prince Henry's captains had already charted West Africa.

Question 5

True or false: Dias later accompanied Vasco da Gama on his first voyage to India.

Accepted Answer

False. Dias helped build da Gama's ships but did not sail with him; he died in 1500, years after da Gama's 1498 voyage.

Question 6

True or false: Dias served as a knight in the court of King John II of Portugal.

Accepted Answer

True. Dias was a fidalgo (knight) of the royal household, and King John II personally approved his expedition.

Question 7

True or false: Dias died when his ship was wrecked in a storm off the coast of South Africa.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1500, Dias perished near the Cape of Good Hope when his ship sank during a storm while part of Cabral's fleet to India.

Question 8

True or false: Dias was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa.

Accepted Answer

False. Ancient Phoenicians likely circumnavigated Africa centuries earlier, though Dias was the first European in the Age of Discovery.

Bartolomeu Dias Trivia Questions