Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama (c. 1469 at Sines or Vidigueira, Alentejo, Portugal–December 24, 1524 in Cochin, India) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery, and the first person to sail directly from Europe to India. Commissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to find Christian lands in the East (the King, like many Europeans, being under the impression that India was the legendary Christian Kingdom of Prester John), and to gain Portuguese access to the commercial markets of the Orient, da Gama extended the sea route exploration of his predecessor Bartholomew Diaz, who had first rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope in 1487, culminating a generation of Portuguese sea exploration fostered by the nautical school of Henry the Navigator. Da Gama's voyage, while successful in establishing a sea route from Europe to India that would permit trade

Related Topics:
1469 - Sines - Vidigueira - Alentejo - Portugal - December 24 - 1524 - Cochin - India - Portuguese explorer - Age of Discovery - Europe - Manuel I of Portugal - Christian - Prester John - Orient - Bartholomew Diaz - Africa - Cape of Good Hope - 1487 - Henry the Navigator

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with the Far East without the use of costly and unsafe Silk Road caravan routes dominated by Muslims in the Middle East and Asia, was hampered by a failure to bring any trade goods of interest to the nations of Asia Minor and India. The route was fraught with peril: only 54 of his 170 voyagers, and two of four ships, returned to Portugal in 1499. Nevertheless, da Gama's initial journey led directly to a several-hundred year era of European domination of sea power and commerce, and 450 years of Portuguese colonialism in India, while bringing wealth and power to the Portuguese throne.

Related Topics:
Far East - Silk Road - Caravan - Muslims - Middle East - Asia - Asia Minor - 1499 - Colonialism

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