what did vasco da gama hope to find in india

Subsequently they went to the city of Calicut where they met 'two Moors from Tunis, who could speak Castilian and Genoese. On, the Portuguese finally saw the lofty mountains of India. On 24 April the São Gabriel, the São Rafael and the Bérrio left the city of Malindi with its white houses to set sail for India.

The king offered Da Gama a pilot who knew how to sail across the Arabian sea to reach India. Nevertheless, the King of Malindi showed much goodwill towards the Portuguese, probably because he had a conflict with the city of Mombasa. In Mombasa Da Gama had a conflict with the local king so the Portuguese seemed to make hardly any friends at all in eastern Africa. At Ilha de Moçambique ('Mozambique Island), one of the southernmost places along the Swahili coast, the Portuguese came in contact with traders who were trading with the Arabian Peninsula, Persia and India. However, distrust and religious differences led to skirmishes and the Portuguese got a bad reputation at the Swahili coast.

The latter derived its name from the fact that Da Gama realized that he had almost reached the extensive trade networks of the Indian Ocean. In present-day southern Mozambique they met peoples at places which were called the Terra da Boa Gente ('Land of the Good People') and the Rio dos Bons Signaes ('River of the Good Singns') by the Portuguese. The Portuguese were more succesful further north. As an eyewitness account it contains a lot of crucial information about Da Gama’s first journey. Indispensable in this is A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497-1499, originally written in Portuguese by an anonymous author. Uncountable historians have done research on Da Gama. During my research I focused on the network established by Da Gama during his first voyage in the Indian Ocean World, both in Africa and Asia. Consequently, both in eastern Africa and India Da Gama lay the foundations for the Portuguese and European presence in the area which would last centuries.

The discovery of the sea route to India by rounding the Cape of Good brought Europe, Africa and Asia closer together.Īlthough Da Gama is most well known for being the first European to reach India by sea, he was the first to sail along the eastern African coast, the so-called Swahili coast, as well. During this expedition the Portuguese came in contact with a variety of peoples for the first time. His first journey to India (1497-1499) was extremely important in intensifying relations between the West and the East. Without any doubt, Vasco da Gama extended the Portuguese trade network to a very large extent.

What did vasco da gama hope to find in india