Exploration

Vasco da Gama

a Gama was born in 1469 in Sines, Altemtejo, Portugal, and participated in the wars opposing Castille when he was a youth. On July 8 1497, da Gama set sail from Lisbon with 4 ships having been sent by the King of Portugal, Emanual, to reach India by sea. After not seeing land for 3 months, by November that same year he had rounded the Cape of Good Hope. At Christmas 1497, Natal (in South Africa) was discovered and named. However, da Gama began running into muslim opposition by the time he passed Mozambique, yet he nevertheless secured a pilot to take his fleet eastward by the time they reached Malindi (on Kenya's coast).

On May 20 1498 he had reached India at Calicut on the Malabar Coast. Unfortunately, however, he was unable to secure a trade agreement with the Zamorin (the ruler). This was partly due to the animosity of the Muslim traders, as well as the mediocre quality of the merchandise he had brought along.

Thereafter, da Gama battled to get his crew back to Malindi and eventually did so after 3 months, they reached Portugal in September 1499, after having traveled 24000miles by sea and having lost most of his men to scurvy. da Gama had dispelled the ancient myth that the Indian Ocean was landlocked, and was titled Admiral of the Indian Ocean as a reward for his attempts.

Next, Pedro Àlvares Cabral was commissioned to sail to India to consolidate da Gama's discoveries, and managed to institute a trading post for Portugal at Calicut. Soon thereafter, those posted at Calicut were massacred; upon hearing this, da Gama was sent in February 1502 to avenge the deaths of his fellow Portuguese citizens. He thus attacked numerous Muslim ships, including the Meri (carrying over 400 men, women and children on their way back from a pilgrimage to Mecca) and in India tamed the angry citizens with the powerful and impressive Portuguese ammunition. He thereafter forced the Zamorin to reconcile and managed to come to a trade agreement - he left India with a vast cargo of expensive spices. On his way back to Portugal, da Gama also established Portuguese trading posts and colonies at Mozambique and Sofala (now Beira) and reached Portugal in September 1503. The Portuguese royalties paid him for all his duties, and for the 20 years that followed he didn't take part in active sea duty.

In 1519 he was named Count of Vidigueira, and was named viceroy in 1524. In the same year he was commissioned to return to India where he fought corruption among the Portuguese officialdom posted there. Unfortunately, da Gama died in Cochin 3 months after his arrival in India in the autumn of 1524.

da Gama played an imperative role in increasing the influence of Portugal's capital, Lisbon, to later become the prime European spice trade port. da Gama helped establish Portugal as a leading trade country with East African, Indian and Indonesian ports. A prolific explorer and navigator, he was the first European to sail around Africa so as to reach India by sea (completing Henry the Navigator's expedition 80 years previously).