Henry the Navigator never did locate Prester John, but his impact on Portuguese trade along Africa's east coast during his 40 years of explorative work was undeniable. Still, for all his work, the southern portion of Africa — what lay east — remained shrouded in mystery.
In , an important breakthrough was made when Bartolomeu Dias discovered the southern tip of Africa and rounded the Cape of Good Hope. This journey was significant; it proved, for the first time, that the Atlantic and Indian oceans were connected. The trip, in turn, sparked a renewed interest in seeking out a trade route to India. By the late s, however, King Manuel wasn't just thinking about commercial opportunities as he set his sights on the East.
In fact, his impetus for finding a route was driven less by a desire to secure for more lucrative trading grounds for his country, and more by a quest to conquer Islam and establish himself as the king of Jerusalem. Historians know little about why exactly da Gama, still an inexperienced explorer, was chosen to lead the expedition to India in On July 8 of that year, he captained a team of four vessels, including his flagship, the ton St. Gabriel , to find a sailing route to India and the East.
To embark on the journey, da Gama pointed his ships south, taking advantage of the prevailing winds along the coast of Africa. His choice of direction was also a bit of a rebuke to Christopher Columbus, who had believed he'd found a route to India by sailing east. Following several months of sailing, he rounded the Cape of Good Hope and began making his way up the eastern coast of Africa, toward the uncharted waters of the Indian Ocean.
By January, as the fleet neared what is now Mozambique, many of da Gama's crewmembers were sick with scurvy, forcing the expedition to anchor for rest and repairs for nearly one month. In early March of , da Gama and his crew dropped their anchors in the port of Mozambique, a Muslim city-state that sat on the outskirts of the east coast of Africa and was dominated by Muslim traders.
Here, da Gama was turned back by the ruling sultan, who felt offended by the explorer's modest gifts. By early April, the fleet reached what is now Kenya, before setting sail on a day run that would take them across the Indian Ocean. Vasco de Gama was famous for his personality, being described as violent, rude and relentless. Coming from a poor family, he had an inferiority problem and so his ambitions were to achieve great social status and fortune.
For many years lots of travelers tried to find a direct sea route from Portugal to India to avoid having to deal with merchants and traders from the Mediterranean and Egypt, who were known to impose high taxes for the exchange of their goods. In July 8th , the King of Portugal ordered Vasco de Gama to discover the sea route from Portugal to India, where he established contact in Calecute, India in May, 17th of , ten months after his departure.
Muslim merchants prepared an ambush upon the Portuguese arrival to India, but they failed. Vasco de Gama battled against them and easily claimed the lands to the South East. With this conquest, the official trade route from Portugal to the lands of the East was finally open, breaking the Arab and Venetians monopoly in the East. He expanded Portuguese trade of merchandise and ideas to the new lands he had found.
The King Manuel I of Portugal trusted Vasco da Gama to be the leader of an exploration to the west and to serve as the ambassador to the rulers of India as well.
He got the title thanks to the many trips and achievements throughout the years serving the King as a Captain of the Charters. Vasco da Gama was known to be kind of brutal and arrogant. Some traits of his personality led to negative relations with the Muslims. On his first journey to India, he found out that India had already established trade with many different countries, such as Africa and China. This, and the fact that he had an aggressive temper, complicated the establishment of a profitable relations with the natives.
Some historians say that Vasco da Gama and his crew were disrespectful towards Hindu shrines and even kidnapped a few locals to be used as interpreters in their next expeditions. Thanks to his explorations and discoveries, Vasco da Gama gained major roles in the military and navy.
At the time, the Muslims held a monopoly of trade with India and other Eastern nations, thanks to their geographical position. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon that July with four vessels, traveling south along the coast of Africa before veering far off into the southern Atlantic in order to avoid unfavorable currents.
With the help of a local navigator, da Gama was able to cross the Indian Ocean and reach the coast of India at Calicut now Kozhikode in May Though the local Hindu population of Calicut initially welcomed the arrival of the Portuguese sailors who mistook them for Christians , tensions quickly flared after da Gama offered their ruler a collection of relatively cheap goods as an arrival gift.
This conflict, along with hostility from Muslim traders, led Da Gama to leave without concluding a treaty and return to Portugal. After Muslim traders killed 50 of his men, Cabral retaliated by burning 10 Muslim cargo vessels and killing the nearly sailors aboard. He then moved on to Cochin, where he established the first Portuguese trading post in India. For these brutal demonstrations of power, da Gama was vilified throughout India and the region. Upon his return to Portugal, by contrast, he was richly rewarded for another successful voyage.
Da Gama had married a well-born woman sometime after returning from his first voyage to India; the couple would have six sons. For the next 20 years, da Gama continued to advise the Portuguese ruler on Indian affairs, but he was not sent back to the region until , when King John III appointed him as Portuguese viceroy in India. Da Gama arrived in Goa with the task of combating the growing corruption that had tainted the Portuguese government in India.
He soon fell ill, and in December he died in Cochin. Da Gama himself rode in the ton St. Gabriel and his younger brother Paulo led the St. Da Gama sailed south, taking advantage of the prevailing winds off the western coast of Africa, and swung out into the Atlantic before veering back in an arc to meet the South African coast. By the time they reached Indian Ocean waters, most of his crew was infected with scurvy. Da Gama made landfall in Mozambique to rest and resupply. The Europeans assumed the locals were Christians, though they were actually Hindus.
Despite this misunderstanding, the ruler of Calicut agreed to trade with da Gama and he acquired a large supply of valuable spices. The ships encountered terrible storms during their journey. The passage across the Indian Ocean — which had previously taken little more than three weeks — took more than three months.
So many men died of scurvy during the crossing that da Gama ordered the St. Rafael burned for lack of crew.
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