Vasco da Gama (c. 1469 - 1524) was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea, arriving at Calicut in May 1498 after rounding the Cape of Good Hope. [1] The voyage established a direct maritime link between Europe and Asia and became the foundation of Portugal's commercial empire in the Indian Ocean. He returned east twice more, the last time as Viceroy of Portuguese India, and died at Kochi in 1524. [2]
Background
Da Gama was born in Sines, on the southwestern coast of Portugal, around 1469, the son of Estêvão da Gama, a minor nobleman who served as the town's alcaide-mór. Little is documented of his early life beyond his naval service. [1]
Portuguese exploration of the African coast had proceeded for most of the fifteenth century under the impetus of Prince Henry and his successors, and in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias had rounded the southern tip of Africa. King Manuel I chose da Gama to complete the route to India.
The first voyage
The fleet of four ships left Lisbon in July 1497. Rather than following the African coast, da Gama swung far west into the South Atlantic to catch favourable winds, a manoeuvre that kept the ships out of sight of land for some three months before they turned east toward the Cape of Good Hope, which they rounded in November. [1]
Sailing north along the East African coast, the expedition called at Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi, encountering established Muslim trading networks and mixed receptions. At Malindi da Gama engaged a pilot familiar with the monsoon crossing, and the fleet reached Calicut on the Malabar coast on 20 May 1498. [3]
Negotiations with the Zamorin of Calicut went poorly. The goods the Portuguese had brought were of little value in a sophisticated market already supplied through Arab merchants, and da Gama left in August without a commercial treaty, though with a cargo of spices. The return crossing, attempted against the monsoon, took months and cost much of the crew to scurvy; two of the four ships and fewer than half the men reached Portugal in 1499. [1]
Second voyage
Da Gama returned in 1502 in command of a heavily armed fleet, with the aim of establishing Portuguese dominance by force. The expedition bombarded Calicut, seized and destroyed shipping, and used violence against Muslim traders and pilgrims, including the burning of a pilgrim vessel, the Mîrî, with those aboard. [2]
These methods set the pattern for the Estado da Índia, the system of fortified trading posts and armed control of sea lanes later consolidated by Francisco de Almeida and Afonso de Albuquerque. [3]
Later years and death
Da Gama spent two decades in Portugal, accumulating titles and revenues; he was made Count of Vidigueira in 1519. In 1524 King John III appointed him Viceroy of Portuguese India and sent him east to address disorder and corruption in the colonial administration. [1]
He arrived in September 1524 and began a vigorous programme of reform, but fell ill within months and died at Kochi on 24 December 1524. His remains were later returned to Portugal and since 1880 have rested in the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon. [4]
Legacy
The opening of the Cape route reshaped world trade and initiated nearly five centuries of European involvement in Asia. [2] Da Gama is commemorated in Portuguese national culture, notably in Luís de Camões's epic Os Lusíadas, while assessments of the voyages increasingly weigh the commercial achievement against the violence used to secure it. [3]
