Vasco da Gama’s Early Life and First Voyage to Indiaīorn circa 1460, Vasco da Gama was the son of a minor nobleman who commanded the fortress at Sines, located on the coast of the Alentejo province in southwestern Portugal. Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy he died there of an illness in late 1524. Da Gama received a hero’s welcome back in Portugal, and was sent on a second expedition to India in 1502, during which he brutally clashed with Muslim traders in the region. After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa before reaching the trading post of Calicut, India, in May 1498. The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. Da Gama’s Later Life and Last Voyage to India.Relations with Local Population & Rival Traders.Vasco da Gama’s Early Life and First Voyage to India.He was not a pirate, but he looted and killed many men only to take revenge. He died soon after he got there on Christmas Eve. Vasco da Gama went on one last trip in 1524 to be the viceroy (governor) of Calicut, which was by that time a Portuguese colony. Then, he went on to Calicut and took over that city, capturing a lot of wealth, pleasing the King of Portugal. During this trip, he attacked and stole from all the Arab and Indian ships he found in the Indian Ocean.
He found out that the people of Calicut killed the Portuguese he had left behind. Vasco da Gama went on his next trip in 1502. A few of his Portuguese sailors stayed in Calicut. However, he escaped and returned to Portugal in September 1499. Vasco da Gama was in danger because of a conflict with the ruler of Calicut.
The pilot brought the Portuguese men to the city of Calicut on the southwest coast of India on May 20, 1498. There, at Malindi, da Gama hired a pilot from India. An angry crowd discovered that da Gama's men were not Muslims, so the crew continued north to Kenya. Mozambique was controlled by Arabs because it was part of the Indian Ocean's network of trade. The coast is still called Natal.īy January, da Gama's crew reached modern-day Mozambique, on the East African coast. They did this because they sailed by it at Christmas. Da Gama's crew gave the South African coast they were passing the name Natal, which means " Christmas" in Portuguese. Vasco da Gama sailed around the bottom of the African continent. No European explorer before him had sailed further than the place that is now called South Africa. On the 4th of July 1497 da Gama left Lisbon with four ships: the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, the Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name. According to some people's accounts, he was a knight in the 1490s in Sines. He went to India three times by ship.ĭa Gama was born in Sines, Portugal. He was the first European who went to India through the Cape of Good Hope at the southern end of Africa. Vasco da Gama ( 1460 or 1469 - December 24th, 1524) was a Portuguese sailor.