Vasco da Gama helped Portugal grow as a country This cemented his place as a villain in certain parts of the world.ĥ. The people on the ship offered da Gama riches in exchange for mercy but he killed them anyway. The journey is often viewed by historians as one of the best and most successful voyages of all time and is a very well known fact about Vasco da Gama that he is the first European to reach India by sea.ĭuring his second voyage to India, Vasco da Gama stopped a ship of Muslims at Madayi which was travelling from Calicut to Mecca.ĭa Gama looted the ship which contained over 400 people, which included women and children and burned them all to death. It took less than one month to reach India during their first voyage.
The ships were named São Gabriel, São Rafael, Bérrio, and then, São Miguel. Vasco da Gama took 170 men and four vessels with him on his journey. King Manuel had sent da Gama to India in order to establish a trade route to the west and to successfully navigate a route that many had failed to do before him. Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach India by seaĭuring the reign of the Portuguese King Manuel I in 1495–1499, Vasco da Gama made the first recorded trip to India from Europe via the Atlantic Ocean. Vasco da Gama was the third eldest of five brothers. His mother was Isabel Sodré and his parents had six children. He was born in the Portuguese Town of Sones, which is in the south-west of Portugal.Ī relatively unknown fact about Vasco da Gama is that his father was a well-respected Portuguese knight by the name of Estevao da Gama. Some historians believe that he was born in 1460 while many others claim that he was born in 1469. Historians can not agree on his the birth date of Vasco da GamaĪ lot of Vasco da Gama’s early life remains a mystery and there is a lot of debate as to when exactly he was born. Here are ten interesting facts about Vasco da Gama. His influence is undeniable, though, his reputation is not without its flaws. The Portuguese born navigator changed the way that Europe traded with India and also introduced the continent to many different spices, fabrics and riches. Gama headed two of the armadas destined for India, the first and the fourth, the biggest armada, only four years after his arrival from the first one.Vasco da Gama is one of the most celebrated but also controversial explorers in the history of Europe. These spices were mostly pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe which led to a commercial monopoly for several decades. Reaching the legendary Indian spice routes unopposed helped the Portuguese Empire improve its economy that, until Gama, was mainly based on trades along Northern and coastal West Africa. After decades of sailors trying to reach India with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, Gama landed in Calicut on. The route meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean nor the dangerous Arabian Peninsula, and that the whole voyage would be made by sea.
This discovery was significant and paved the way for the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia. He is one of the most famous and celebrated explorers from the Age of Discovery, being the first European to reach India by sea. Vasco da Gama Dom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer.