Portugal, throughout history, has been known for many things.
From the iberian Union to the settling of the Azores and Madeira to the colonization of Brazil,
the Portuguese have shown their variety of skills over the centuries, although one thing they seem
to have been particularly good at was exploration. The story of Vasco da Gama makes a good example…
Vasco da Gama was born in the town of Sines in 1460 to Estevao de Gama and Isabel Sodre.
Este-vao was a member of the Order of Santiago and a prominent local figure,
whereas the family of Vasco’s mother was connected to the Order of Christ and additionally
quite well-connected. While we don’t know much about the childhood of the future explorer,
we know that he initially decided to continue his father’s legacy
and join the Order of Santiago, which would surely come in handy in due time.
By this point, John the Second of Portugal had become king and he was increasingly
fond of the order. He also took a bit of a liking to Vasco da Gama in particular,
with this trust opening the door to da Gama’s life as an explorer…
One of the top priorities of John the Second was the expansion of the royal treasury. So far, trade
throughout Africa had been serving the Portuguese quite well, but this was simply not enough to
please the monarch. John had his sights set on Asia and the lucrative spice trade that his fellow
Europeans had already been utilizing. But, at this point in time, the spice trade was dominated
by the Venetians, who had already established their own set of routes to move the goods about.
John, meanwhile, was starting to think outside of the box in an attempt to circumvent the
Venetians. His solution? Find a way to Asia by sailing completely around the African continent.
This is where Vasco da Gama would come in handy. First, though, the king sent out
some preparations. Two spies, Pera da Covilha and Afonso de Paiva, would initially take an overland
trip to take notes on the current affairs of the spice trade through to India, meanwhile,
a captain, Bartolomeu Dias, would go by boat to confirm whether John’s ambitions were even
rooted in reality at all. Thankfully for the eager monarch, Dias was able to sail around the Cape of
Good Hope, going all the way to Fish River and confirming that there did, in fact, seem to be a
clear sea path around Africa and into India. Now for step two: King John II needed an explorer…
Vasco da Gama was the ruler’s pick.
On July 8, 1497, he set sail with a fleet of four ships, the Sao Gabriel, Sao Rafael,
Berrio, and an unknown ship, all of which together totaled 170 crewmen,
from the Portuguese city of Lisbon. In attendance for this voyage were also highly experienced
navigators such as Afonso Gon-calves, Joao de Coimbra, Pero de Alenquer and Pedro
Escobar. The journey would be rough and long, but King John had sent only the best…
The first leg of the trip was traveled through familiar seas,
passing by Tenerife and the Cape Verde Islands, and eventually Sierra Leone. From there,
the fleet went south across the Equator and tried to follow the path that Dias had taken earlier.
After three months and 6,000 miles, the fleet briefly made landfall
on the African coast before continuing on the route that Dias had assumed. The next part of
da Gama’s journey though would be through seas that were yet to be traversed by a European.
By the first week of March 1498, the expedition had reached Mozambique Island.
After a short stay in the area, hostility from the locals forced
da Gama and his fleet to continue on their way, although they would
exit theatrically as da Gama had his cannons fired back onto the island as they departed.
Next, the fleet would arrive at the port of Mombasa the following month
but would once again be met with aggression and left quickly. Instead of Mombasa, da Gama opted
to try and stay for a week or so at Malindi, where he and his men were thankfully met with
more hospitality. Here they arrived on April 14 and didn’t leave again until April 24,
now finishing the final leg of their journey with the help of an experienced pilot who knew the
local seas and could guide the fleet to Calicut. And so, off to India da Gama and his ships were…
The expedition would finally make landfall near Calicut at Kappa-du on May 20, 1498. Upon hearing
of this, the King of Calicut, or Zamorin, decided to return from his current stay in Ponnani to see
who his foreign visitors were and what exactly they wanted. The Portuguese were greeted with
kindness and respectful hospitality, but the gifts that they had for the king were unsatisfactory,
and many of the nearby Muslim traders were in Zamorin’s ear, particularly in response to da
Gama informing the monarch that he and his men were there in search of “Christians and spices”.
The rival traders told the king that da Gama was in fact a cunning pirate,
and not truly there on behalf of the Portuguese king.
The relationship between da Gama and Zamorin quickly became strained and the Portuguese
would eventually leave India on August 29, not entirely but a bit disappointed…
Nevertheless, the expedition had accomplished what it had set out to do to some degree. It
was now a proven fact that India could be reached via the sea around Africa. But, da Gama was eager
to return home - a task that would be even more difficult than the journey to India had been,
because this time, the monsoon winds were not pushing the fleet forward but instead,
pushing against them as they tried to sail back to Portugal. The trip across the Indian Ocean would
take an additional 109 days as compared to before, and the Berrio would be the first of the ships
to reach Lisbon on July 10, 1499. The Sao Gabriel would return shortly after although da Gama would
not arrive in Portugal until late August as he had opted to stay with his severely ill brother
on the Santiago Island while his ship was taken back to Lisbon by Joao de Sa. The other
two ships would never make it home, and only 55 of the 170 crewmen would return as well.
Da Gama was deemed a hero by his nation and his achievement was greatly celebrated,
but, there was also a clear failure in his journey - da Gama had failed to secure any
kind of commercial treaty with the King of Calicut. He did, however,
manage to bring back some Indian spices and other goods that kept the crown’s enthusiasm
about the possible trade opportunities high. This, then, led to the Portuguese India Armadas…
The Portuguese India Armadas became an annual occurrence
and would sail through da Gama’s new route which would be named the India Run. The second of these
expeditions would be launched in 1500 under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral with the goal
of essentially finishing what da Gama had started by securing a treaty with Zamorin. This yet again
failed after armed conflict broke out between Calicut and the Portuguese,
and by 1502, for the 4th India Armada, da Gama insisted that he be the one to lead the charge.
This was accepted, and da Gama was determined to once and for all finish his mission and take
the upperhand over Zamorin. Accompanied by his cousin, two uncles and brothers-in-law,
altogether with 15 ships and 800 men, da Gama was ready for revenge…
When the fleet arrived back at Calicut, Zamorin was this time open to potentially negotiating a
commercial treaty, but da Gama was already too set on his need to avenge his prior failure.
When his demands for all Muslims to be expelled from Calicut was denied, the explorer and his
men wreaked havoc with absolutely brutal measures - bombarding the unfortified city
for 2 days straight and committing atrocities on crewmen from local vessels that they captured.
Zamorin attempted to fight back by sea, but his own navy was quickly crushed by the Portuguese,
who had come quite prepared for this kind of violence. Nevertheless,
da Gama seems to have prioritized his personal agenda over that of the Portuguese crown,
because in 1503 the fleet would end up leaving Calicut for the journey home,
having failed yet again to secure a commercial treaty and only leaving behind a small portion
of the fleet - not to negotiate, but to continue to bombard the kingdom and stall local trade.
This mistake, or perhaps poor strategy on da Gama’s selfish part, meant that his time as a
Portuguese hero had more or less come to an end. The rest of his life would be fairly uneventful.
He would eventually be named the Count of Vidiguiera and Viceroy after threatening to
leave for Castile after many futile attempts to win back the king’s favor, and after the
succession of yet another king, but he was still on an uphill climb to regain his prior stature.
Da Gama would make one final journey to India in 1524, but there he would contract Malaria
which he would succumb to on Christmas Eve of that year. This would be the end of his legacy…
Despite the hefty controversy placed on the actions of Vasco da Gama in his second
expedition to Calicut, there is no doubt that the first trip taken by the now-famous explorer
played a vastly important role for the future of Portuguese trade, and for European exploration as
a whole. Of all the things that the Portuguese nation has contributed to the world throughout
history, the work of Vasco da Gama in the Indian Ocean just may be one of the most significant…