This was to be da Gama's final voyage, as the great adventurer contracted malaria and died of the disease in Kochi in India in 1524. However, he returned to Portugal a hero and was endowed with new titles and land after he successfully negotiated a trade treaty with the rulers of the Malabar Coast, forced on them through fear.īy the time of Vasco da Gama's third and last voyage to India in 1524, the Portuguese had set up small trading stations and proto-colonies in Goa and on the Cochin coast of western India during the time of Afonso de Albuquerque. One particularly cruel incident was the burning of the Muslim ship the Miri with men, women and children all on board. In 1502 Vasco da Gama returned to the waters off the Indian coast with a larger fleet of 20 vessels, plundering Arab shipping in the area and murdering their crews and passengers along the way. Leaving for home in 1498, da Gama endured a hazardous return voyage back to Lisbon losing half his crew and three of his ships en route.
#Vasco da gama route series
Vasco da Gama, as a successful sea captain after his victories against French privateers, was commissioned by King Manuel I to set sail from Lisbon with a tiny flotilla of four ships to explore the route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, which had first been sailed by Bartolomeu Dias.Īfter a series of adventures after venturing into waters off the east coast of Africa never previously visited by Europeans, Vasco da Gama employed the services of a local pilot and reached the western coast of southern India in 1498, where he attempted to reach an agreement to trade with the local Indian rulers. The end of the 15th century was the beginning of the " Age of Discoveries" with a number of European powers searching for a nautical route to India and its riches via the Atlantic. He may have studied in Evora before he was sent by the monarchy to Setubal and the Algarve to intercept French shipping raiding the Portuguese coast. I was also awarded feudal rights and *jurisdiction.Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) is Portugal's most renown navigator, explorer and adventurer.īorn in Sines in 1460 (although 1469 is an alternative date) little is known of Vasco da Gama's early life. On my return to Portugal in September, 1503, I was made Count. This led the way for other Portuguese conquests in the East Indies. Later, I bombarded the city with guns and managed to get into the trading system. Then I floated the dismembered corpses onto the shore.
To demonstrate the power I had, I hung 38 fishermen cut off their heads, feet and hands. I told him that he would have to banish all the Muslims. When I arrived in Calicut on October 30, 1502, the Zamorin was willing to sign a treaty. It took four days for the ship to sink, killing all men, women and children. They locked the 380 passengers in the hold and set the ship on fire. The Portuguese overtook the ship and seized all the merchandise. In one instance, I waited for a ship to return from *Mecca. I hoped to enforce Portuguese's interests in the east and wanted to get revenge on the Muslims for the opposition in 1948 and killed many Indians and Muslims. I was prepared for an encounter with the Muslim traders. I went out on my second expedition on February 12, 1502.