Which Portuguese king renamed the Cape of Storms as the Cape of Good Hope? The answer is John II.
Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias first rounded the cape in 1488 and called it Cabo das Tormentas, or Cape of Storms, reflecting the dangerous winds and seas encountered there. King John II later changed the name to Cabo da Boa Esperança, or Cape of Good Hope, because the voyage suggested that Portugal might soon reach the Indian Ocean and establish a sea route to India.
The renaming was therefore strategic as well as symbolic. The cape marked a major turning point in Portugal’s long effort to explore Africa’s Atlantic coast and bypass overland and Middle Eastern intermediaries in the Asian trade. Vasco da Gama followed the route a decade later, reaching India in 1498.
The cape is often mistakenly called Africa’s southernmost point. That distinction belongs to Cape Agulhas, roughly 150 kilometers to the southeast. The Cape of Good Hope remains a famous landmark because ships traveling around Africa pass from a predominantly southward course to an eastward one there.