Age of Discovery Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Vasco da Gama's route to India=== {{see also|Portuguese India Armadas}} [[File:Caminho maritimo para a India.png|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Vasco da Gama]]'s 1497–1499 travel to India (black). Previous travels of [[Pero da Covilhã]] (orange) and [[Afonso de Paiva]] (blue), and their common route (green)]] Protected from direct Spanish competition by the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]], Portuguese eastward exploration and colonization continued apace. Twice, in 1485 and 1488, Portugal officially rejected [[Genoa|Genoese]] [[Christopher Columbus]]'s idea of reaching India by sailing westwards. King [[John II of Portugal]]'s experts rejected it, for they held the opinion that Columbus's estimation of a travel distance of {{convert|2400|mi|km|-1}} was low,<ref>[[#Morison 1942|Morison 1942]], pp. 65–75.</ref> and in part because [[Bartolomeu Dias]] departed in 1487 trying the rounding of the southern tip of Africa. They believed that sailing east would require a far shorter journey. Dias's return from the [[Cape of Good Hope]] in 1488, and [[Pero da Covilhã]]'s travel to [[Ethiopia]] overland indicated that the richness of the [[Indian Ocean]] was accessible from the Atlantic. A long-overdue expedition was prepared. [[File:Map of Portuguese Carreira da India.gif|thumb|upright=1.35|left|Outward and return voyages of the [[Portuguese India Armadas]] in the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, with the [[North Atlantic Gyre]] (''[[Volta do mar]]'') picked up by [[Henry the Navigator|Henry]]'s navigators, and the outward route of the South Atlantic westerlies that [[Bartolomeu Dias]] discovered in 1488, followed and explored by the expeditions of [[Vasco da Gama]] and [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]]]] In July 1497, a small exploratory fleet of four ships and about 170 men left [[Lisbon]] under the command of [[Vasco da Gama]]. By December the fleet passed the [[Great Fish River]]—where Dias had turned back—and sailed into waters unknown to the Europeans. Sailing into the Indian Ocean, da Gama entered a maritime region that had three different and well-developed trade circuits. The one da Gama encountered connected [[Mogadishu]] on the east coast of Africa; [[Aden]], at the tip of the Arabian peninsula; the Persian port of [[Hormuz, Iran|Hormuz]]; [[Cambay]], in north western India; and [[Calicut]], in southwestern India.<ref name="ReferenceD">[[#Abu-Lughod 1991|Abu-Lughod 1991]], 252</ref> On 20 May 1498, they arrived at [[Kozhikode|Calicut]]. The efforts of Vasco da Gama to get favorable trading conditions were hampered by the low value of their goods, compared with the valuable goods traded there.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World|last=Bernstein|first=William J.|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-4416-4|date=2008|location=New York|language=en}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2017}} Two years and two days after departure, Gama and a survivor crew of 55 men returned in glory to Portugal as the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Da Gama's voyage is romanticized in the [[Os Lusíadas]], an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] by fellow discovery-era traveler [[Luís de Camões]]. The poem is widely regarded as Portugal's greatest literary achievement.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-05-21 |title=The Lusiads |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/may/22/artsfeatures2 |access-date=2022-08-24 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=2022-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824004732/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/may/22/artsfeatures2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Fiegl |first2=Amanda |title=Adventures of a Portuguese Poet |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/adventures-of-a-portuguese-poet-8433719/ |access-date=2022-08-24 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en |archive-date=2022-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824004730/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/adventures-of-a-portuguese-poet-8433719/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1500, a second, larger fleet of thirteen ships and about 1500 men were sent to India. Under command of [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]], they made the first landfall on the Brazilian coast, giving Portugal its claim. Later, in the Indian Ocean, one of Cabral's ships reached [[Madagascar]] (1501), which was partly explored by [[Tristão da Cunha]] in 1507; [[Mauritius]] was discovered in 1507, [[Socotra]] occupied in 1506. In the same year [[Lourenço de Almeida]] landed in [[Sri Lanka]], the eastern island named "[[Names of Sri Lanka|Taprobane]]" in remote accounts of [[Alexander the Great]]'s and 4th-century BC Greek [[geographer]] [[Megasthenes]]. On the Asiatic mainland the first [[factory (trading post)|factories (trading-posts)]] were established at Kochi and Calicut (1501) and then [[Old Goa|Goa]] (1510). {{clear}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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