Exploration before Gama:
From the early fifteenth century, the nautical school of Henry the Navigator had been extending Portuguese knowledge of the African coastline. 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.
The Republic of Venice had gained control over much of the trade routes between Europe and Asia. Portugal hoped to use the route pioneered by Bartolomeu Dias to break the Venetian trading monopoly.
By the time Gama was ten years old, these long-term plans were coming to fruition. 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 having verified that the unknown coast stretched away to the northeast.
Concurrent land exploration during the reign of João II of Portugal supported the theory that India was reachable by sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva were sent via Barcelona, Naples and Rhodes, into Alexandria and thence to Aden, Hormuz and India, which gave credence to the theory.
It remained for an explorer to prove the link between the findings of Dias and those of da Covilhã and de Paiva and to connect these separate segments into a potentially lucrative trade route into the Indian Ocean. The task, originally given to Vasco da Gama's father, was offered to Vasco by Manuel I on the strength of his record of protecting Portuguese trading stations along the African Gold Coast from depredations by the French.
First voyage:
On 8 July 1497 the fleet, consisting of four ships and a crew of 170 men, left Lisbon.The vessels were:
The São Gabriel, commanded by Vasco da Gama; a carrack of 178 tons, length 27 m, width 8.5 m, draft 2.3 m, sails of 372 m²;
The São Rafael, whose commander was his brother Paulo da Gama; similar dimensions to the São Gabriel;
The caravel Berrio, slightly smaller than the former two (later re-baptized São Miguel), commanded by Nicolau Coelho;
A storage ship of unknown name, commanded by Gonçalo Nunes, later lost near the Bay of São Brás, along the east coast of Africa.
Journey to the Cape:
expedition set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, following the route pioneered by earlier explorers along the coast of Africa via Tenerife and the Cape Verde Islands. After reaching the coast of present day Sierra Leone, Gama took a course south into the open ocean, crossing the Equator and seeking the South Atlantic westerlies that Bartolomeu Dias had discovered in 1487. This course proved successful and on November 4, 1497, the expedition made landfall on the African coast. For over three months the ships had sailed more than 6,000 miles of open ocean, by far the longest journey out of sight of land made by the time.
By December 16, the fleet had passed the Great Fish River - where Dias had turned back - and sailed into waters previously unknown to Europeans. With Christmas pending, Gama and his crew gave the coast they were passing the name Natal, which carried the connotation of "birth of Christ" in Portuguese.
Arab-controlled territory on the East African coast was an integral part of the network of trade in the Indian Ocean. Fearing the local population would be hostile to Christians, Gama impersonated a Muslim and gained audience with the Sultan of Mozambique. With the paltry trade goods he had to offer, Gama was unable to provide a suitable gift to the ruler and soon the local populace became suspicious of Gama and his men. Forced by a hostile crowd to flee Mozambique, Gama departed the harbor, firing his cannons into the city in retaliation.
Second voyage:
On 12 February 1502, Gama sailed with a fleet of twenty warships, with the object of enforcing Portuguese interests in the east. This was subsequent to the voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral, who had been sent to India two years earlier. (Swinging far to the west across the Atlantic in order to make use of the pattern of favourable winds, Cabral became the official European discoverer of Brazil.) When he finally reached India, Cabral learned that the Portuguese citizens who had been left by Gama at the trading post had been murdered. After encountering further resistance from the locals, he bombarded Calicut and then sailed south of Calicut to reach Cochin, a small kingdom where he was given a warm welcome. He returned to Europe with silk and gold.
Once he had reached the northern parts of the Indian Ocean, Gama waited for a ship to return from Mecca and seized all the merchandise on it. He then ordered that the hundreds of passengers be locked in the hold and the ship - which was named Mîrî, and which contained many wealthy Muslim merchants - to be set on fire. When Gama arrived at Calicut on October 30, 1502 the Zamorin was willing to sign a treaty.
Gama assaulted and exacted tribute from the Arab-controlled port of Kilwa in East Africa, one of those ports involved in frustrating the Portuguese. His ships engaged in privateer actions against Arab merchant ships, and then destroyed a Calicut fleet of twenty-nine ships. Following that battle he extracted favorable trading concessions from the Zamorin, returning to Portugal in September 1503.
Third Voyage:
In 1519 he became the first Count of Vidigueira, a count title created by King Manuel I of Portugal on a royal decree issued in Évora in December 29, after an agreement with Dom Jaime, Duke of Braganza, who cede him on payment the towns of Vidigueira and Vila dos Frades, granting Vasco da Gama and his heirs all the revenues and privileges related[15], thus becoming the first Portuguese count (earl) who was not born with royal blood.
Having acquired a fearsome reputation as a "fixer" of problems that arose in India, Vasco da Gama was sent to the subcontinent once more in 1524. The intention was that he was to replace the incompetent Eduardo de Menezes as viceroy (representative) of the Portuguese possessions, but Gama contracted malaria not long after arriving in Goa and died in the city of Cochin on Christmas Eve in 1524.
His body was first buried at St. Francis Church, which was located at Fort Kochi in the city of Kochi, but his remains were returned to Portugal in 1539. The body of Vasco da Gama was re-interred in Vidigueira in a casket decorated with gold and jewels.
The Monastery of the Hieronymites in Belém was erected in honour of his voyage to India.
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