Vasco da Gama Cape of Good Hope. What did Vasco da Gama discover?

The famous navigator Vasco da Gama is one of the symbols of Portugal and its pride: he was the first to travel by sea from Europe to India. That's what we were told in history lessons at school. In fact, he was a cruel pirate, a cynical intriguer and a rare despot.

Vasco was born in 1469 (according to other sources - in 1460) in the fishing village of Sines. His father, Don Estevan, was the commandant of a castle that belonged to the knightly order of Santiago.

For half a century, the Portuguese had been sending expeditions along the coast of Africa to go around it and sail to India. In this distant country there were spices that were worth their weight in gold after the Turks blocked the overland trade route from the east. Don Estevan himself was preparing for the expedition, but two of his five sons were destined to carry it out.

Vasco was a bastard (he was born before his parents married), and this was reflected in his character. The boy knew that he would not receive an inheritance and had to make his own way in life. And reproaches about his origin only embittered him. In 1480, he and his older brother Paulo, also illegitimate, took monastic vows. However, only the first step is novitiate.
Some biographers call the subsequent period of Vasco’s life “12 mysterious years.” For some reason, a young man of not very noble family, and even a bastard, becomes known as “a good knight and a faithful vassal” of the king. He may have taken part in one of the wars with Spain as a teenager and later fought against the Muslims in Morocco. And yet it is difficult to explain the case when Vasco beat the judge, and King João II, who usually does not tolerate lawlessness, forgave him. Maybe it’s really for merit?

Vasco appeared again on the horizon of history in the year of Columbus’s first expedition: in 1492, the king sent him to rob French ships. When da Gama returned to court, everyone was talking about the fact that the Spaniards had paved the western sea route to India. The Portuguese had only a “route” bypassing Africa, which was discovered in 1488 by Bartolo Meu Dias. And here another mystery arises. João II did not have time to equip a new expedition, and the new king Manuel I did not favor the da Gama family. Nevertheless, it was not Dias who was appointed its head, but young Vasco. The king ordered Dias to sail only to Guinea and become commandant of the fortress there.
Six decades later, the historian Gaspar Correira naively insisted that Manuel I, having accidentally seen Vasco, was fascinated by his appearance. He really had a pleasant appearance, but this is unlikely to be the reason. There is another version: mathematician, astronomer and part-time court astrologer Abraham Ben Shmuel Zacuto predicted to King Manuel that India would be conquered by two brothers. It seems that he mentioned the brothers for a reason: Zacuto supposedly taught Vasco at the university in Évora.
But, most likely, Manuela was simply bribed by Vasco’s ability to set a goal and go towards it, immeasurable cruelty, but at the same time flexibility, talent for deception and intrigue. Such a person was capable of conquering India.

On July 8, 1497, three ships left the port of Lisbon. It is interesting that on the way Vasco used Dias’ advice, despite the fact that he actually sat him down. When they circumnavigated Africa, riots began demanding a return. Vasco captured the rebels, tortured them, identified the participants in the conspiracy and put everyone in shackles.
As soon as the flotilla reached the trading territory of Arab merchants, the voyage turned into a pirate raid. First of all, Vasks deceived Sultan Mozambik by posing as a Muslim. He gave pilots, after which Da Gama began to mercilessly rob all passing ships.
Almost a year after sailing, the ships approached the Indian city of Calicut. Its ruler received the Europeans with honors, but soon rightly suspected them of malicious intent and put them under arrest. Vasco and his companions were rescued by local merchants - they hoped that the aliens would “shorten” their Arab competitors. The ruler eventually even bought the entire cargo, paying in spices. But they did not fill the holds - and yes Gama continued the robberies.
One day he came across a ship on which there was an admiral from the Goa region, a Spanish Jew. Vasco convinced him - most likely under torture - to help with an attack on his city. On the admiral's ship, the Portuguese approached the city at night, and he shouted that his friends were with him. “Friends” robbed the ship at the port, slaughtering everyone who did not have time to escape.
On the way back, the Portuguese were decimated by hunger and scurvy. On September 18, 1499, only two ships and 55 people returned to Lisbon (Vasco's brother Paulo also died). At the same time, the expenses of the expedition were recouped 60 (!) times. Vasco was showered with honors: he received the right to the prefix “don” to his name, a pension of a thousand gold pieces and his hometown of Sines as fief. But it was not enough for him: the stigma of a bastard burned his pride, he wanted to be a count and nothing else. In the meantime, he married Katarina di Ataidi, a girl from a very noble family.

Soon the expedition of Pedro Cabral left for India, but he lost most of his ships and people in battles (among them was the disgraced Dias), and brought little goods. As a result, the third expedition to India was again led by Vasco. Disrupting Arab trade in the Indian Ocean was now his main goal, and to achieve it he destroyed everything in his path. So, having captured an Indian ship, he locked the crew and passengers, including women and children, in the hold, and set the ship on fire. When they finally made it onto the deck, he shot them with cannons, and the survivors were finished off in the water. However, he still spared two dozen children... Having captured more than 800 prisoners in Calicut, Vasco ordered them to be tied up, having first cut off their noses, ears and hands, and also knocked out their teeth so that the unfortunate ones could not untie the ropes with their help. People were loaded onto the ship and also shot from cannons.
All this was too much even for that cruel time. And this is not hatred of Muslims, but deliberate acts of intimidation, although personal sadism is not excluded. For example, da Gama captured several Indians and wanted to use them as targets for crossbowmen. And then I learned that these people were Christians (probably Indian Nestorians). Then he ordered... to call a priest so that his co-religionists could confess before death.
Upon his return, the king increased Vasco's pension, but did not give him the coveted county. Then he threatened that, like Columbus, he would leave Portugal. And he immediately received the title of Count Vidigueira...

Da Gama achieved everything he wanted: he had a title, lands, wealth, six sons - all of them would also sail to India. But the king, Juan III, did not allow him to live in peace. In India, the Portuguese administration was mired in corruption, and Vasco was sent to restore order there. He took up the matter with his characteristic thoughtful cruelty, but did not have time to complete the king’s task: on December 24, 1524, he died suddenly from malaria.
Vasco da Gama's body was transported to Portugal and buried in his county, but in the 19th century the crypt was looted. On the 400th anniversary of his first expedition, the ashes were reburied in Lisbon, but it turned out that the bones were not the same. Others were found and reburied again, although there is no certainty about their authenticity. Only one thing is certain: this cruel, greedy and morbidly ambitious man will remain one of the greatest sailors in world history.

Gama Vasco da (1469-1524), Portuguese navigator.

Not much is known about the fate of Vasco da Gama. Born in the small coastal town of Sines (Portugal).

In 1497, the Portuguese government sent him at the head of a flotilla of four ships in search of a sea route to India around Africa. By this time, the coast up to the Cape of Good Hope had already been explored by the Portuguese (B. Dias and others), their ships also visited the eastern coast of Africa. The Portuguese court sought to establish direct trade communications with India as quickly as possible - Columbus had already publicly announced the discovery of the “Indies” in the west, across the Atlantic Ocean.

The current carried da Gama's ships to the Columbus "Indies" (to Brazil). However, the traveler was not interested in them, but returned to the intended route and thus became the discoverer of the sea route from Western Europe to true India. In 1498, da Gama's ships arrived in Malindi, the largest Arab-Swahili port in the Indian Ocean. Here the navigator hired the famous Arab traveler, an unsurpassed authority in marine science of that time, Ahmad ibn Majid. Thanks to him, on May 20, 1498, the Portuguese finally achieved their goal, arriving at the port of Calicut (now Calcutta) on the west coast of India. However, it took a lot of work for Da Gama to convince the local ruler to start trading with foreigners.

During the voyage, the flotilla suffered significant losses - half of the ships died from storms, and more than half of the sailors were killed by disease. Nevertheless, in 1499 Vasco da Gama successfully returned to Lisbon. His journey marked the beginning of the Portuguese trade and military-colonial penetration into the Indian Ocean basin.

On March 9, 1500, a flotilla of 13 ships left the mouth of the Tagus River and headed southwest. Behind the stern remained the solemn Lisbon with a crowd of townspeople. The next expedition to India was sent with pomp at the highest, state level - among those seeing off the ships were the top officials of Portugal, led by King Manuel I himself, nicknamed the Happy. The desire to consolidate the success of Vasco da Gama, who returned from India, inspired the monarch and his entourage to organize a much larger enterprise than the previous, actually reconnaissance, mission. The personnel of the squadron leaving for a distant and barely familiar path numbered about 1,500 people - with the goal of concluding strong trade relations with India. More than a thousand of them were well-armed and experienced warriors.

Vasco da Gama sails to India. Painting by artist Alfredo Roque Gameiro

In the shadow of a powerful neighbor

The Portuguese took a long time to win their place under the hot Pyrenean sun - like their closest Christian neighbors, the Spaniards, the main obstacle in this painstaking task was the Moorish states. By the second half of the 13th century, the Portuguese managed to secure the southwest of the peninsula and look around. The small kingdom had few sources of wealth, and more than enough neighbors with whom it was necessary to be on guard. And it wasn’t just the Moors - the neighboring Christian kingdoms turned from allies to enemies with the ease of a blade drawn from its sheath.

Quite modest personal income barely made it possible to support stockings, which, due to the far from peaceful and calm surroundings, had to be worn in the form of chain mail highways. What remained was trade, a craft, although not as noble as war with the infidels, but very profitable. However, there were not many ways to successfully implement trade expansion in the Mediterranean region, especially for a not very large, not very strong and powerful state. Trading business with eastern countries was firmly held in the tenacious hands of the maritime republic-corporations - Venice and Genoa, and they did not need competitors. Their colleague, the Hanseatic League, controlled the sea routes in the Baltic and in large areas of Northern Europe.

The path to the south remained vacant - along the little-explored African continent, and, of course, the endless frightening ocean stretching to the west, reverently called the Sea of ​​​​Darkness. His time has not yet come. The Portuguese began to actively develop everything that was somehow connected with the sea. Experienced captains, sailors and shipbuilders were recruited from among Italians knowledgeable in the salting craft, primarily immigrants from Genoa and Venice. Portugal began building its own shipyards and ships.

Alleged portrait of Enrique the Navigator

Soon the invested efforts and resources began to little by little, gradually, produce visible results. In 1341, the Portuguese navigator Manuel Pesagno reached the Canary Islands. In August 1415, the army and navy of King John I captured Ceuta, thereby creating the first stronghold on the African continent, which was of great strategic importance. The military expedition was attended, among others, by the monarch’s five sons. The third son of King Enrique showed himself most clearly and courageously.

After many years, he would receive the respectful nickname Navigator. The contribution of this man to the emergence of Portugal as a great maritime power is difficult to overestimate. In 1420, Prince Henrique became Grand Master of the Order of Christ and, using the resources and capabilities of this organization, built the first Portuguese observatory at Cape Sagres. A naval school was also located here, training personnel for the growing fleet. Having familiarized himself with the travel notes of the Italian Marco Polo, Prince Enrique ordered the collection of all available information about distant and rich India, the achievement of which he set as the highest priority for Portugal.

Nuno Gonçalves, 15th century artist. Polyptych of Saint Vincent. The third part, the so-called “Prince Panel”, supposedly depicts Enrique the Navigator

In addition, the prince intended to conquer Morocco in order to strengthen his position in Africa. As a man of diverse knowledge and interests, Enrique had a good understanding of the system of Trans-Saharan trade caravans, widespread in the times of Rome and Carthage. In the political realities of the 15th century, access to the wealth of Western and Equatorial Africa was closed by the presence of extremely hostile Muslim states of the Levant. Possession of Morocco or Mauritania would allow Portugal to open a kind of window into Africa.

Infante Fernando, beatified by the Catholic Church

However, such strategic undertakings, which required enormous resources, which the small kingdom had in short supply, began to stall. One after another, military expeditions failed - in 1438, even the king’s youngest son, Fernando, was captured by the Moors, who died there without waiting for his release.

The vector of foreign policy efforts has finally moved towards achieving rich sources of income from trade by sea. In 1419, the Portuguese discovered the island of Madeira; in 1427, the newly discovered Azores came under the control of Lisbon. Step by step, the Portuguese moved south - along routes and waters long forgotten in Europe. In the 30s–40s. In the 15th century, caravels equipped with a slanting lateen sail, whose widespread introduction is also attributed to Prince Enrique, crossed Cape Bojador and later reached Senegal and Gambia, extremely remote lands by the standards of that time.

Modern replica of a Portuguese caravel with a slanting sail

The enterprising Portuguese dexterously established trade with the local population - an ever-larger flow of ivory, gold, incense and black slaves rushed to the metropolis. Trade in the latter soon became so profitable that a state monopoly was declared to concentrate profits on it. Fortified settlements, which served as strongholds, were founded in the newly discovered territories.

While the neighbors on the peninsula, Aragon and Castile, were preparing for the final solution to the Mauritanian question, victorious and the liquidation of the completely degraded Emirate of Granada, Portugal was gradually growing richer. Prince Enrique the Navigator died in 1460, leaving behind a growing maritime power, ready to challenge the Sea of ​​Darkness, which had hitherto inspired almost mystical horror. And although during the lifetime of this extraordinary statesman Portugal did not reach the shores of the mysterious India, the geopolitical impulse he gave made it possible to carry out this task before the end of the century.

The first of many. Vasco da Gama

The death of Prince Henrique by no means stopped Portuguese expansion. In the 1460–1470s, they managed to gain a foothold in Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. In 1471, Tangier fell, significantly strengthening Lisbon's position in North Africa. Portugal is no longer a European backwater - success in navigation and trade make this small country widely known. Fabulous profits and benefits attract the funds of rich Venetian and Genoese merchants to equip expeditions to Africa; the Spanish neighbors, being bound by the not yet completed Reconquista, are displeased with envy and dream of their own colonies. However, distant India and other exotic eastern countries remain distant and hardly distinguishable from the myths and fables that are told with might and main in the port taverns of Europe.

In the late 70s - early 80s of the 15th century, the royal court, first of His Majesty Afonso V of Africa, and then of João II, was vigorously besieged by all available means by a young persistent Genoese named. His persistent thought, which he tried to convey to the consciousness of the Portuguese monarchs, was to reach India by sailing westward. Colon's conviction was based on the opinion of the scientific cartographer Paolo Toscanelli and the growing idea that the Earth was spherical.

However, the rulers of Portugal, not without reason, considered themselves experts in maritime affairs and, with still complacent arrogance, advised the Genoese to cool down a little and do something more useful. For example, test the patience of neighbors - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In the end, having failed to achieve understanding in Portugal, Colon went to neighboring Spain, where preparations for the capture of Granada were in full swing.

At the end of the 80s. In the 15th century, Portugal took another big step towards achieving the goal set for it by Enrique the Navigator. In 1488, the expedition of Bartolomeu Dias discovered a cape far to the south, which, with the light hand of King John II, received the name Cape of Good Hope. Dias discovered that the African coast turned to the north - thereby reaching the southern point of Africa.

However, even before Dias's successful return to Portugal, King João II had additional confidence in the correctness of his chosen strategy for searching for India. In 1484, the leader of one of the tribes living on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea was brought to Lisbon. He said that 12 months of land travel to the east lies a large and powerful state - obviously, he was talking about Ethiopia. Not limiting himself to information received from a native, who could have lied for the sake of credibility, the king decided to conduct a real reconnaissance expedition.

Two monks, Pedro Antonio and Pedro de Montaroyo, were sent to Jerusalem in order to collect valuable information in this city, which was a crossroads where pilgrims of different faiths could be met. Arriving in Jerusalem, the monks were able to come into contact with their colleagues - monks from Ethiopia and obtain some information about the countries of the East. The Portuguese intelligence officers did not dare to penetrate further into the Middle East because they did not speak Arabic.

Satisfied with the successful mission of the monks, the pragmatic João II sent new scouts along the same path. Unlike their predecessors, Pedro de Cavillan and Gonzalo la Pavia spoke Arabic fluently. Their immediate mission was to penetrate Ethiopia and reach India. Under the guise of pilgrims heading to the East in abundance, both royal scouts managed to reach the Sinai Peninsula without hindrance. Here their paths diverged: de Cavillian, through Aden, using the regular sea communication of Arab merchants with Hindustan, was able to reach the coveted India. He visited several cities, including Calicut and Goa.

It is quite possible that he was the first Portuguese to penetrate this part of the world. De Cavillian also returned back through Aden and arrived in Cairo. In this city, the envoys of King Juan II were already waiting for him - two inconspicuous Jews, to whom the traveler handed a detailed report about everything he saw and heard. De Cavillian urgently asked to convey to the king that India could be reached by moving along the coast of Africa. His comrade on the reconnaissance mission, Gonzalo la Pavia, was less fortunate - he died far from his homeland in Egypt.

Not stopping there, Pedro de Cavillan decided to penetrate Ethiopia. He successfully completed the task and came to the court of the local ruler so much that, being gifted with estates, positions and honors, he married and remained there. In 1520, the Portuguese king's envoy to Ethiopia met de Cavigliana in the retinue of the Negus. According to other sources, the Portuguese was deliberately kept from returning to Portugal in order to prevent information leakage.

In Lisbon, in principle, the direction in which the path to India should be sought was no longer in doubt. And soon they decided on the candidate who would lead this enterprise. The competence of such an experienced navigator as Bartolomeu Dias was generally known, but perhaps his leadership abilities were subject to some doubts. Upon reaching the southern tip of Africa on his ships, the crews disobeyed, demanding a return to Portugal. And Dias could not convince his subordinates. What was needed was a leader less prone to compromise and persuasion.

Vasco da Gama. Gregorio Lopes, Portuguese artist of the late 15th - first half of the 16th century

In 1492, French corsairs captured a Portuguese caravel loaded with valuable cargo. A 32-year-old little-known nobleman named Vasco da Gama was entrusted with carrying out retaliatory measures that should have pushed the French king to some reflection about the behavior of his subjects. On a fast ship, he visited the ports of Portugal and, on behalf of João II, captured all the French ships in the waters of the kingdom. Thus, John II could calmly threaten his French colleague with confiscation of goods if he did not punish the corsairs. Vasco da Gama brilliantly coped with a difficult task.

The successful rise of the career of the proactive Portuguese who knew how to behave very toughly in critical situations came at a time when the Iberian Peninsula was excited by the news of the return of the “dreamer” Cristobal Colon on a ship loaded with all sorts of exotic wonders. The Genoese managed to enlist the support of Queen Isabella and finally set off on his legendary voyage to the West. Before his triumphant return to Spain, Colon was granted a solemn audience with the Portuguese king.

The discoverer colorfully described the lands he discovered and the numerous natives, several of whom he took to show his patrons. He argued that the new territories were very rich, although the amount of gold brought from overseas was not very large. Colon, with his characteristic persistence, claimed that he had reached, if not India, then the nearby territories, from which the country of gold and spices was just a stone's throw away. The pragmatic Portuguese monarch João II and his many associates, among whom was Vasco da Gama, had every reason to doubt the correctness of the conclusions made by the Genoese.

Everything he said bore little resemblance to the information about India that had been accumulated at the Portuguese court. There was no doubt that Colon had reached some unknown lands, but with a high degree of probability they had nothing to do with India. While the Genoese was deservedly enjoying the fruits of his triumph and preparing for a new, much larger expedition overseas, Lisbon decided to act without delay. The activity of Spain, which had now become not only a dangerous neighbor who had driven the Moors beyond Gibraltar, but also a competitor in maritime and trade affairs, greatly alarmed the highest political circles of Portugal.

In order to smooth out the rough edges in the relations between the two Catholic monarchies, with the mediation of the Pope in June 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was concluded, dividing the existing and future possessions of the neighbors on the Iberian Peninsula. According to the agreement, all lands and seas located three hundred and seventy leagues to the west of the Cape Verde Islands belong to Spain, and to the east - Portugal.

In 1495, João II died, yielding the throne to Manuel I. The change of power did not entail a change in foreign policy. It was necessary to reach India as quickly as possible. On July 8, 1497, a Portuguese squadron of four ships under the command of Vasco da Gama set off on a long journey around Africa. He himself flew his flag on the San Gabriel. Leaving behind the well-known Gulf of Guinea, on November 23 the squadron rounded the Cape of Good Hope and moved through the waters of the Indian Ocean.

Now Vasco da Gama had three ships - the fourth, which was a transport ship, had to be abandoned (the reason for this is unknown). In April 1498, the Portuguese reached Malindi harbor. It was a fairly busy place, regularly visited by Arab and Indian merchants. The destination of the journey, by the standards of the distance already traveled, was almost a stone's throw away.

However, Vasco da Gama was in no hurry. Being not only a brave man, but also a capable leader, he tried to establish more contacts with the local population, to add more information to what was already at his disposal. A colony of Indian merchants lived in Malindi, with whom they managed to establish quite acceptable relations. They told the Portuguese about a nearby large Christian state - again they were talking about Ethiopia. And they also provided the expedition with an Arab helmsman.

On April 24, the squadron left Malindi and moved east. Thanks to the monsoon, on May 20, 1498, Portuguese ships entered Calicut harbor for the first time in official history. India was reached, and the wishes of Enrique the Navigator were fulfilled. Bilateral contact was soon established with the local rajah - in general, the Indians calmly accepted the new arrivals.

Much less sentimental were the numerous Arab merchants who had long chosen a place in Calicut, successfully conducting commercial transactions here. The Arabs knew well who the Portuguese really were and what they really needed: not the search for “Christian countries,” but gold and spices. Trade went on quite briskly, although not without hindrances. The local population was much more civilized than the African natives. Transactions with the help of beads and cheap mirrors were impossible here. The Arabs, sensing competitors in their trade guts, constantly intrigued, telling the Indians about the aliens all sorts of stories of varying degrees of truthfulness and ferocity.

The situation gradually became tense, and in the fall of 1498 the expedition was forced to leave the Indian coast. The path to Malindi was not so favorable - the ships of Vasco da Gama, due to frequent calms and contrary winds, reached this point on the African coast only in early January of the following year, 1499. Having given rest to the exhausted teams, suffering from hunger and disease, the tireless head of the expedition moved on.

Exhausted by hardships, hunger and scurvy, but feeling like winners, the sailors returned to Lisbon in September 1499. Due to the severe reduction in crews, one of the ships, the San Rafael, had to be burned. Of the more than 170 people who left Portugal in the summer of 1497, only 55 returned. However, despite the losses, the expedition was considered successful and fully paid off. It’s not even a matter of a fair amount of exotic goods brought - the Portuguese now had at their disposal a well-explored and once already traveled round-trip sea route to India, a country of great wealth and the same opportunities. Especially for commercial representatives who had firearms at their disposal and the determination to use them with or without reason.

Consolidating success

While Vasco da Gama was in areas very distant from Portugal to the east, in the spring of 1498 Christopher Columbus set off on his third expedition. By this time, his star had dimmed somewhat, his fame had faded, and the smiles sent to him by King Ferdinand and his entourage had lost their former width. Despite the seemingly convincing stories, perseverance and perseverance, the admiral and viceroy of all the Indies no longer looked so full-bodied. The amount of gold and other valuables that were brought from the newly discovered lands overseas was still very modest, and the costs of expansion were still high.

Ferdinand had numerous foreign policy plans, and he simply needed gold. But Spain had no alternative to the business started by Columbus, and Ferdinand once again believed the Genoese and gave the go-ahead to equip the third expedition. In the midst of the Spanish agonizing expectations of holds full of gold and spices, which Columbus would now certainly bring from “India,” Vasco da Gama returned to his homeland with convincing evidence of where the sought-after India actually was.

Portugal has once again surpassed its neighbor in the political-geographical race. While clouds were gathering over the head of Columbus, who was overseas, with the speed of a tropical storm, the Portuguese rightly decided to hurry up. Intensive preparations began for a large expedition, which was supposed to not only strengthen the initial successes of Vasco da Gama, but also, if possible, allow him to gain a foothold on the shores of distant and genuine, unlike Columbus, India. Already in January 1500, the head of this large-scale enterprise was appointed - Pedro Alvares Cabral, who had not been particularly noticed anywhere before. The departure was scheduled for spring.

To be continued...

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Finding a sea route to India was a very important task for Portugal. The country, located away from the main trade routes of the time, could not fully participate in world trade. Exports were small, and the Portuguese had to buy valuable goods from the East at very high prices. At the same time, the geographical position of Portugal was very favorable for discoveries on the west coast of Africa and attempts to find a sea route to the “land of spices”.

In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope, circumnavigated Africa and entered the Indian Ocean. After that, he had to turn back, as the sailors demanded a return to Portugal. Based on Dias' discoveries, King João II was about to send a new expedition. However, preparations for it dragged on and got off the ground only after Manuel I ascended the throne in 1495.

The head of the new expedition was not Bartolomeu Dias, but Vasco da Gama, who was 28 years old at that time. He was born in the coastal Portuguese town of Sines and belonged to an old aristocratic family. At his disposal were two heavy ships, the San Gabriel and the San Rafael, a light fast ship, the Berriu, and a transport ship with supplies. The crew of all ships reached 140-170 people.

2 Swimming

The ships passed the Canary Islands, separated in the fog and gathered near the Cape Verde Islands. The further journey was made difficult by headwinds. Vasco da Gama turned to the southwest and, a little short of reaching Brazil, thanks to a fair wind, managed to reach the Cape of Good Hope in the most convenient way. On November 22, the flotilla rounded the cape and entered unfamiliar waters.

At Christmas, the ships entered the bay, which was called Christmas Harbor (port of Natal). At the end of January 1498, the expedition reached the mouth of the Zambezi River, where it stayed for about a month, repairing ships.

Moving further along the east coast of Africa, the Portuguese reached Mozambique on March 2. Here began the territories controlled by the Arabs. Vasco da Gama had enough translators, so the further voyage took place along a route that was quite understandable for the Portuguese: they knew the distances and the main ports at which they had to stop.

3 India

In a wealthy Somali city, Melinda Gama managed to negotiate with the sheikh, and he provided him with a pilot. With his help, the expedition reached India in May 1498. The ships stopped near the city of Calicut (Kozhikode). The local ruler, the Zamorin, cordially received the ambassador of the Portuguese captain. However, Gama sent gifts to the ruler that had no value, relations between him and the ruler cooled, and the situation in the city, on the contrary, became tense. Muslim merchants turned the townspeople against the Portuguese. The ruler did not give Vasco da Gama permission to establish a trading post.

On August 9, before leaving, Gama addressed the Zamorin with a letter in which he reminded him of the promise to send an embassy to Portugal and asked to send several bags of spices as a gift to the king. However, the ruler of Calicut responded by demanding payment of customs duties. He ordered the detention of several Portuguese, accusing them of espionage. In turn, Vasco da Gama took hostage several noble Calicutans who visited the ships. When the Zamorin returned the Portuguese and part of the goods, Vasco da Gama sent half of the hostages ashore and took the rest with him. On August 30, the squadron set off on its return journey.

The way back was not easy. On January 2, 1499, da Gama's sailors sighted the Somali port of Mogadishu. In September 1499, Vasco da Gama returned to his homeland as a hero, although he lost two ships and two-thirds of the crew, including his beloved brother Paulo.

4 Second voyage to India. Departure

Immediately after the opening of the sea route to India, the Portuguese kingdom began organizing annual expeditions there. A 1500 expedition led by Pedro Alvares Cabral concluded a trade treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut and established a trading post there. But the Portuguese came into conflict with the Arab merchants of Calicut, the trading post was burned, and Cabral sailed out of the city, firing cannons at it.

Vasco da Gama was again appointed head of the new large expedition, equipped after the return of Cabral. Part of the flotilla (15 ships out of 20) left Portugal in February 1502.

5 Swimming

Beyond the equator, Gama, probably for the purpose of reconnaissance, went, without moving far from land, along the coast of Arabia and North-West India to the Gulf of Cambay, and from there he turned south.

At Kannanur, Gama's ships attacked an Arab ship sailing from Jeddah (Mecca harbor) to Calicut with valuable cargo and 400 passengers, mainly pilgrims. Having plundered the ship, Gama ordered the sailors to lock the crew and passengers, among whom there were many old men, women and children, in the hold, and the bombardiers to set the ship on fire.

6 India

Having concluded an alliance with the ruler of Kannanur, Gama moved a flotilla against Calicut at the end of October. He began by hanging 38 fishermen who were offering fish to the Portuguese on yards, and bombarded the city. At night, he ordered the corpses to be removed, heads, arms and legs cut off, and the bodies dumped in a boat. Gama attached a letter to the boat, saying that this would be the fate of all citizens if they resisted. The tide brought the boat and the stumps of corpses ashore. The next day, Gama again bombarded the city, plundered and burned a cargo ship approaching it. Leaving seven ships to blockade Calicut, he sent two other ships to Kannanur for spices, and with the rest went to Cochin for the same cargo.

After two “victorious” skirmishes near Calicut with Arab ships, Vasco da Gama in February 1503 led the ships back to Portugal, where he arrived in October with a cargo of spices of enormous value. After this success, Gama's pension and other income were significantly increased, and he later received the title of count.

7 Third voyage

In 1505, King Manuel I, on the advice of Vasco da Gama, created the office of Viceroy of India. The successive Francisco d'Almeida and Affonso d'Albuquerque strengthened Portugal's power on Indian soil and in the Indian Ocean with brutal measures. However, after Albuquerque's death in 1515, his successors became much worse at their tasks, thinking more about personal enrichment.

King João III of Portugal decided to appoint the 54-year-old stern and incorruptible Vasco da Gama as second viceroy. In April 1524, the admiral sailed from Portugal. Vasco da Gama was accompanied by two sons - Estevan da Gama and Paulo da Gama.

8 India. Death

Immediately upon his arrival in India, da Gama took firm measures against the abuses of the colonial administration. But on December 24, 1524, Vasco da Gama died of malaria in Cochin.

“...If this situation had continued for another two weeks, there would have been no people left to control the ships. We have reached such a state that all bonds of discipline have disappeared. We prayed to the patron saints of our ships. The captains consulted and decided, if the wind allowed, to return back to India” (Diary of Vasco da Gama’s travels).

After Bartolomeu Dias discovered the route around Africa to the Indian Ocean (1488), the Portuguese found themselves one march away from the coveted land of spices. Confidence in this was reinforced by evidence obtained through the research of Perud Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva of the existence of maritime communication between East Africa and India (1490-1491). However, for some reason the Portuguese were in no hurry to make this very throw.

A little earlier, in 1483, Christopher Columbus offered King João II of Portugal a different route to India - the western route, across the Atlantic. The reasons why the king nevertheless rejected the Genoese’s project can now only be guessed at. It is most likely that the Portuguese either preferred the “bird in the hand” - the path to India around Africa, which had already been almost groped over many years, or they were better informed than Columbus and knew that beyond the Atlantic Ocean was not India at all. Perhaps João II was going to save Columbus with his project until better times, but he did not take into account one thing - the Genoese was not going to wait for the weather by the sea, he fled from Portugal and offered his services to the Spaniards. The latter took their time for a long time, but in 1492 they finally equipped an expedition to the west.

The return of Columbus with the news that he had discovered a western route to India naturally worried the Portuguese: the rights to all lands discovered to the south and east of Cape Bojador, granted to Portugal in 1452 by Pope Nicholas V, were questioned. The Spaniards declared the lands discovered by Columbus theirs and refused to recognize the territorial rights of Portugal. Only the head of the Catholic Church himself could resolve this dispute. On May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI made a Solomonic decision: all the lands that the Portuguese had discovered or would discover east of the meridian running 100 leagues (one league was equal to approximately 3 miles or 4.828 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands belonged to them, and the territories west of this line - to the Spaniards. A year later, Spain and Portugal signed the so-called Treaty of Tordesillas, which was based on this decision.

Now the time has come for active action. It was becoming dangerous to delay the expedition to India - God knows what else the Genoese Spaniard would discover across the Atlantic! And the expedition was organized - with the direct participation of Bartolomeu Dias. Who, if not he, who was the first to enter the Indian Ocean, had every right to lead the fateful expedition? However, the new Portuguese king Manuel I in 1497 gave this assignment not to him, but to the young nobleman Vasco da Gama - not so much a navigator as a military man and diplomat. Obviously, the king assumed that the main difficulties awaiting the expedition lay not in the area of ​​navigation, but in the area of ​​contacts with the rulers of the states of East Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

On July 8, 1497, a flotilla consisting of four ships with a crew of 168 people left Lisbon. The flagship "San Gabriel" was commanded by Vasco da Gama himself, the captain of the "San Rafael" was his brother Paulo, Nicolau Coelho led the "Berriu", and on the captain's bridge of the fourth, a small merchant ship, the name of which has not been preserved, stood Gonzalo Nunes. The expedition's route across the Atlantic Ocean is of considerable interest and provides food for many speculations. Having passed the Cape Verde Islands, the ships turned west and described a large arc that almost touched South America, and then went east to St. Helena Bay on the African coast. Not the closest way, right? But the fastest - with such a trajectory, sailboats “ride” on favorable ocean currents. It appears that the Portuguese were already well aware of the currents and winds of the western half of the South Atlantic. This means they could have sailed this route before. Perhaps, while passing by, they saw the land - South America and, moreover, landed there. But this is already in the realm of assumptions, not facts.

Vasco da Gama's people spent 93 days in the ocean without setting foot on land - a world record at that time. On the shore of St. Helena Bay, the sailors met dark-skinned (but lighter than the inhabitants of the mainland already familiar to the Portuguese) short people - the Bushmen. The peaceful trade exchange somehow imperceptibly turned into an armed conflict, and we had to weigh anchor. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope and after it the southernmost point of Africa - Cape Agulhas, since the compass needle near it was losing declination, the ships entered Mosselbay Bay, and on December 16 they reached the final destination of Bartolomeu Dias's voyage - Rio do Infante (now Great Fish). Meanwhile, scurvy began among the sailors. Now everyone knows that the surest cure for the disease is vitamin C, which is abundant in any fruit, and then there was no cure for the disease.

At the end of January, three ships (the fourth ship, the smallest and decrepit, had to be abandoned) entered the waters where Arab traders were in charge, exporting ivory, ambergris, gold and slaves from Africa. At the very beginning of March, the expedition reached Mozambique. Wanting to make the most favorable impression possible on the local Muslim ruler, Vasco da Gama introduced himself as an adherent of Islam. But either the Sultan revealed the deception, or he did not like the gifts presented by the navigator - the Portuguese had to retreat. In retaliation, Vasco da Gama ordered the inhospitable city to be shot from cannon.

The next stop was Mombasa. The local sheikh didn’t immediately like the aliens - they were, after all, non-believers, but he liked their ships. He tried to take possession of them and destroy the team. The Portuguese managed to put the attackers to flight. Several times Arab merchant ships attacked the Portuguese at sea, but, lacking guns, they were doomed to failure. Vasco da Gama captured Arab ships, and brutally tortured and drowned the prisoners.

In mid-April, the ships arrived in Malindi, where the Portuguese finally received a warm welcome. This is explained simply: the rulers of Malindi and Mombasa were sworn enemies. The crew received several days to rest, the ruler provided the Portuguese with provisions and, most importantly, gave them an experienced Arab pilot to lead the expedition to India. According to some reports, it was the legendary Ahmed ibn Majid. Other historians deny this.

On May 20, the pilot led the flotilla to the Malabar coast, to Calicut (modern Kozhikode), the famous transit center for trade in spices, precious stones and pearls. At first everything went well. The ruler of Calicut (Samuthiri) was hospitable, the Portuguese received permission to trade. They managed to acquire spices, precious stones, and fabrics. But soon troubles began. Portuguese goods were not in demand, largely due to the intrigues of Muslim traders, who were not accustomed to competition and, moreover, had heard about numerous skirmishes between the Portuguese and Arab trading ships. The attitude of the Samuthiri towards the Portuguese also began to change. He did not allow them to establish a trading post in Calicut, and once even took Vasco da Gama into custody. Staying here longer became not only pointless, but also dangerous.

Shortly before sailing, Vasco da Gama wrote a letter to the Samutiri, in which he reminded of the promise to send ambassadors to Portugal, and also asked for gifts for his king - several bags of spices. In response, Samuthiri demanded payment of customs duties and ordered the seizure of Portuguese goods and people. Then Vasco da Gama, taking advantage of the fact that noble people of Calicut were constantly visiting his ships out of curiosity, took several of them hostage. Samutiri was forced to return the detained sailors and part of the goods, while the Portuguese sent half of the hostages ashore, and Vasco da Gama decided to take the rest with him. He left the goods as a gift to the Samuthiri. At the end of August the ships set off. If the journey from Malindi to Calicut took the Portuguese 23 days, then they had to get back for more than four months. And the reason for this is the monsoons, which in summer are directed from the Indian Ocean towards South Asia. Now, if the Portuguese had waited until winter, the monsoon, having changed its direction to the opposite, would have quickly rushed them to the shores of East Africa. And so - a long exhausting swim, terrible heat, scurvy. From time to time we had to fight off Arab pirates. In turn, the Portuguese themselves captured several merchant ships. Only on January 2, 1499, the sailors approached Mogadishu, but did not stop, but only fired at the city with bombards. Already on January 7, the expedition arrived in Malindi, where in five days, thanks to good food, the sailors got stronger - those who remained alive: by this time the crew had thinned by half.

In March, two ships (one ship had to be burned - there was no one to guide it anyway) rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and on April 16, with a fair wind, they reached the Cape Verde Islands. Vasco da Gama sent ahead a ship, which in July brought news of the expedition's success to Lisbon, while he himself remained with his dying brother. He returned to his homeland only on September 18, 1499.

A solemn meeting awaited the traveler; he received the highest title of nobility and a life annuity, and a little later he was appointed “Admiral of the Indian Seas.” The spices and precious stones he brought more than paid for the expenses of the expedition. But the main thing is different. Already in 1500-1501. The Portuguese began trading with India and established strongholds there. Having gained a foothold on the Malabar coast, they began expanding east and west, ousting the Arab merchants and establishing their dominance in Indian sea waters for a whole century. In 1511 they captured Malacca - a real kingdom of spices. Vasco da Gama's reconnaissance in force on the East African coast allowed the Portuguese to organize forts, transshipment bases, and supply points for fresh water and provisions.

FIGURES AND FACTS

Main character: Vasco da Gama, Portuguese
Other characters: Kings João II and Manuel I of Portugal; Alexander VI, Pope; Bartolomeu Dias; captains Paulo da Gama, Nicolau Coelho, Gonzalo Nunes
Time period: July 8, 1497 - September 18, 1499
Route: From Portugal, bypassing Africa to India
Goal: Reach India by sea and establish trade relations
Significance: Arrival of the first ships from Europe in India, establishment of Portuguese dominance in Indian sea waters and on the East African coast