Pêro da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva were sent via Barcelona, Naples, and Rhodes, into Alexandria, and from there to Aden, Hormuz, and India, which gave credence to the theory Bartolomeu Dias had returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope, having explored as far as the Fish River (Rio do Infante) in modern-day South Africa, and verified that the unknown coast stretched away to the northeast.Ĭoncurrent land exploration during the reign of João II of Portugal supported the theory that India was reachable by sea from the Atlantic Ocean. From the 1460s, the goal had become one of rounding that continent's southern extremity to gain easier access to the riches of India (mainly black pepper and other spices) through a reliable sea route.īy the time da Gama was ten years old, these long-term plans were coming to fruition. However, with Christopher Columbus, da Gama is deservedly one of the most famous of all European explorers since his voyages changes the face of the globe, bringing two continents closer to each other for good or for ill.įrom the early fifteenth century, the nautical school of Henry the Navigator had been extending Portuguese knowledge of the African coastline.
The Portuguese national epic, the Lusíadas of Luís Vaz de Camões, largely celebrates his voyages. His story has elements of myth, due to a Eurocentric gloss that downplays the part played by Arab navigators in his voyages, for example.
Nevertheless, da Gama's initial journey led directly to a several-hundred year era of European domination through sea power and commerce, and 450 years of Portuguese colonialism in India that brought wealth and power to the Portuguese throne. The route was fraught with peril: only 54 of his 170 voyagers, and two of four ships, returned to Portugal in 1499. However, the voyage was also hampered by its failure to bring any trade goods of interest to the nations of Asia Minor and India. He was created count of Vidigueira for his services to the crown.ĭa Gama's voyage was successful in establishing a sea route from Europe to India that would permit trade with the Far East, without the use of the costly and unsafe Silk Road caravan routes of the Middle East and Central Asia. Vasco da Gama 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.Ĭommissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to find Christian lands in the East (the king, like many Europeans, was 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 Bartolomeu Dias, who had first rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope in 1488, culminating a generation of Portuguese sea exploration fostered by the nautical school of Henry the Navigator.
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