Vasco Da Gama - Part 1 - Age of Discovery

foreign ly Endless Ocean four ships were making their Passage the fleet was Portuguese and the sailors on board had not seen land in three long weeks but this was only a portion of the long journey that they had endured their Voyage had been an impressive feat of navigation and exploration and never before attempted by a European they had departed from Lisbon and had traveled for more than 10 months going a distance that was equivalent to half the circumference of the Earth the commander was a man named Vasco de Gama he had been appointed directly by

the king of Portugal for this task he and his men together had made their way around Africa and then onwards into the vast unknown that was the Indian Ocean for the gamma this mission was more than just procuring a piece of the lucrative spice trade for his King it was also a mission to secure a foothold for his religion but his expedition had come very close to complete disaster numerous times Vasco de Gama had seen his men fight the rigors of malnutrition the ravages the disease and the misfortunes of armed conflict the question now remained

had it all been truly worth it suddenly along the Eastern Horizon emerging from the ocean missed something came into view it was not just land what they saw was a vast row of impressive mountains that stretched along the entire Horizon this was no simple Island this was a subcontinent [Music] in the final years of the 15th century dramatic changes were happening in the Iberian Peninsula Bartholomew Diaz had rounded the tip of Africa in pero de covillion had made it to the city of Calicut in India the combined discoveries that these explorers had made put Portugal

on the verge of extrapolating the ultimate goal finding a sea passage to the lucrative spice markets of the Indian subcontinent however King John II of Portugal was forced to divert his attention and patronage away from Discovery and exploration to the political Arena he was embroiled in vicious campaigns of crusade in North Africa in 1491 his only son in Heir was killed in an accident prompting problems the succession and the very next year 1492 the Portuguese king would face a humanitarian crisis it was that year that neighboring Castile and Aragon had completed the Reconquista by defeating

the last Kingdom of Islam in Iberia they soon afterwards expelled the Jews many of whom would find refuge in Portugal but this relocation would put a considerable strain on the Portuguese crown however these events were soon to be eclipsed by one of the greatest flash points in history [Music] it was on March 3rd 1493 that a ship struggled into the harbor of rostello a small Village near Lisbon the name of the ship was the Santa Maria and on board was a genuese Explorer sailing under the flag of Spain his name was Christopher Columbus and he

carried word of a vast new world that he had just stumbled upon now some argue that Columbus intentionally landed in Portugal to rub his Discovery in King John II's face the King after all had previously rejected his expedition others say that the genoese captain barely made it the land either way a confrontation with Spain seemed inevitable as word of Columbus's Voyage spread throughout Europe King John immediately laid claim to the new territory that Columbus had just discovered citing a violation of a prior treaty as a result he began to tremendously expand the Portuguese Navy Spain

likewise also geared up for war but knowing that the Portuguese Navy was bigger the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand decided to appeal to the pope to intercede the pontiff at the time was Alexander VI the Borgia Pope who had managed to come to power just the year before he was considered a Spaniard technically aragonese the man was instrumental in putting Isabella on the throne the two were on excellent terms and this is perhaps the reason why the Castilian Queen had cunningly chosen this path the pope would pass several papal Bulls to literally establish spheres of

influence for the two Iberian Powers though it needs to be mentioned these documents heavily favored Castile Kristen Downey in the book The Warrior Queen explains what happened next quote the Portuguese naturally were not happy with the Pope's ruling Queen Isabella and king juau of Portugal therefore negotiated their own division of the globe in talks that were held in Castile at the town of tordecias the agreement that they reached on June 7 1494 known as the Treaty of tordecias pushed the north-south dividing line West 370 leagues approximately 1200 miles from the islands of Cape Verde instead

the Pope's 100 Lakes to the West thereby allowing Portugal to retain All rights to the coast of Africa the resolution of the dispute at least at this time and from the perspective of Queen Isabella and King joao was that Spain now owned the western side of all new lands and Portugal owned the Eastern section the two cousins had divided the cookie in half end quote it should be noted that Portugal may have already known about the eastern edge of South America that is Brazil at this time rather than the official Discovery date of 1500 by

Cabral the world had been divided Spain increasingly a rival would now be headed to the west and Portugal was free to head to the east in terms of exploration or perhaps exploitation it was time for the Portuguese to get back to work King John II would reinvigorate his plans to find a sea Passage to India but he would never see his campaigns come to light in 1495 John II once regarded as the perfect Prince at the age of 40 died without an heir his first cousin Manuel who would be known as the fortunate king would

come to power Roger Crowley in his book The conquerors describes him well quote the new king had inherited a streak of Messianic destiny that ran deep in the Portuguese Royal House of aviz christened with the name Emmanuel that is God is with us he saw mystical significance in his coronation he was 26 years old and it had taken extraordinary circumstances to place him on the throne that is the death or Exile of six people he saw his kingship as a sign that he had been chosen by God the India plan which had faltered in the

later troubled years at King juau's Reign became the primary Outlet of Manuel's ambition he firmly believed that he and he alone had inherited the mantle of his Grand Uncle Enrique the Navigator end quote in the general counsel of December 1495 King Manuel faced opposition from his nobility about engaging in any long-term voyages his response was to decisively overrule them instead he appointed a man of minor nobility to take command of a new Fleet that he had just assembled its mission was to find the yet elusive sea route to the spice markets of India the man

that the king had chosen to do this job was named Vasco de Gama Vasco de Gama was born in 1460 in the city of cines Portugal his father is Stevo de Gama and his mother Isabel sodre had five sons of which Vasco was the middle child however there is very little known of his childhood as he matured he was regarded as being intelligent excellent with mathematics and well versed with navigation it was also said of him that he had a very short temper indeed as his life story would unfold he increasingly embraced the dark side

at the age of 20 he pursued a military and religious path like many members of his family he joined the ranks of the order of Santiago and in time he would become a fervent defender of the faith thus throughout his adult life he would always have a formidable hatred of Islam the Portugal that the gamma was brought up in was rapidly changing Lisbon had become a remarkable Port it was a buzz with activity vibrant with exotic Goods King Manuel had taken the throne to a kingdom that now had over 80 years worth a cutting-edge maritime

experience from exploration to trading the shipbuilding it showed in the people Portuguese Sailors were eager to expand their trading empire it also showed in the vessels that were being built in the ever expanding shipyards Portugal wasn't just producing ships of exploration they were bigger faster and increasingly better armed high quality bronze cannons and swivel guns had become commonplace manned by German and Flemish Gunners giving new voyages a decisively offensive capability Vasco de Gama was given four ships by the crown two were Care acts named after archangels the South Rafael and the Sao Gabrielle one was

a Caravel named the berio and the last was a large Supply ship no expense was spared on equipment the ships carried the best maps astrolabes and Canon the gamma was given 2 000 gold crusados a massive sum as was his brother Paulo who would command the Sal Rafael accompanying him would be a host of extremely competent Sailors including Bartholomew Diaz the first explorer around the tip of Africa and joining them would be his brother Diogo Diaz July 8 1497 was considered an auspicious Day by the court astrologers on the banks of the tagus who were

the Teo river near Lisbon dagama LED his men to the water in a sacred procession flanked by priests and the nobility with much fanfare the crews were taken aboard their ships and soon the fleet was underway within one week they had made it to the Canary Islands with favorable winds at their back they were able to push further south but shortly thereafter a thick fog blinded the fleet which became separated however Vasco de Gama had given instructions for exactly this type of contingency a Rally Point had been established on the island of Santiago in the

Cape Verde archipelago by July 26th the fleet had been reassembled for the next week the ships remained docked at Santiago taking in fresh supplies and as much water as they could hold it was here that Bartholomew Diaz decided to remain it was not until August 7th of 1497 that the fleet departed Now using the knowledge of the ocean currents and the pattern of the Winds established by the work of Bartholomew Diaz and other Portuguese explorers the Expedition would now take an absolutely astonishing course Roger Crowley explains quote the expedition was about to embark on a

maneuver for which there was no known precedence some 700 miles south of the Cape Verde archipelago about seven degrees from the equator instead of following the familiar Contours of the African Coast the Gabrielle and its following vessels turned their Rudders to the southwest and plunged into the center of the Atlantic in a huge looping curve the land behind them vanished the ships drove onwards briskly into the unknown and were swallowed up in the vastness of the ocean gamma's course followed the counter-intuitive truth established by Bartholomew Diaz nine years earlier that to round Africa it was

necessary to swing away out into the ocean to pick up the Westerly winds in order to carry the ships past the cape a good hope but the Gabriel's course was a huge magnification of the earlier experiment by doing this it was evident that by the end of the century Portuguese Navigators must have had a clear idea of how the winds of the Southern Atlantic worked end quote the course that the fleet took was a vast Arc out into the Atlantic whereas Bartholomew Diaz on his journey had been away from land for 30 days this portion

of their Voyage would last 93 and covered a distance of over 4 500 miles to give this modern context that's like flying from Lisbon to New Delhi now there is a very mysterious aspect of this leg of the voyage two weeks in on August 22nd the chronicler Alvaro Velo documented seeing Birds signifying proximity to land then his journal of events goes silent for two months could there have been nothing as significance to note during this time or as some theorized had the voyage come into contact with the eastern coast of South America and was the

lack of documentation a means of the Portuguese Crown to keep this knowledge hidden from its rivals the resolve of the crew was tested to the extreme during this time food began to rot fresh water became scarce fever dysentery malnutrition and scurvy would claim many lives once they had made it past the equator even the reassuring North Star was lost behind the horizon then on November 4th 1497 the African Coast was spotted and the fleet came to Anchor at Saint Helena Bay now granted this was Northeast to the Cape of Good Hope but they still had

made it a long way the ships were eventually repaired and supplies were procured now when the Pastoral people of the area were encountered the gamma initially approached them with good intentions however hostility would eventually break out leading to several armed skirmishes for Vasco this was a turning point on his Outlook increasingly away parties would be heavily armed the gamma's temperament had changed to shoot at even the slightest provocation on December 2nd 1497 the fleet arrived at the Bay of the cowherds where Bartholomew Diaz had previously made landfall by December 15th they had passed Diaz's last

pedrao that is his final Stone marker The Passage to India now lay before them the fleet proceeded to hug the eastern coast of Africa but as they went scurvy set in with a Vengeance the disease would ravage the crew Crowley gives us Insight quote the symptoms of scurvy were Advanced and many of the crew were in a ghastly State their hands feet and legs were monstrously swollen their bloody and putrid gums grew over their teeth as a result most of the men could no longer eat the smells were atrocious wounds no longer healed and the

men of the fleet began to Die end quote on January 22nd 1498 the debilitated Fleet reached the Delta of a massive River it was here that hippopotamuses and crocodiles were seen this was the mighty Zambezi River and it would save the Expedition from complete annihilation it wasn't so much the Clean Air and the medical interventions which the crew figured was the reason why everyone was getting better but rather the abundance of fruit that was found along the banks of the river with the critically needed vitamin C for a month the fleet anchored off the Delta

and recuperated a pedrao dedicated to Saint Raphael was placed eventually the ships left the Great River behind on February 24th but a few days later on March 2nd they spotted a large Bay when the caravel the berio was sent in to investigate she ran aground on a sandbank as the crew attempted to get her free they were approached by men in canoes who invited them to come into the bay the language that they spoke however was unmistakable it was Arabic unknown the dagama and his crew the Zambezi marked the beginning of the lands belonging to

the Sultan of Mozambique a country that was Muslim the Portuguese had now just entered into a vast New World the Indian Ocean after all is 30 times the size of the Mediterranean which mirrored its complexity Roger Crowley once again puts it incredibly well quote unlike Columbus the Portuguese had not birthed into silent Seas for thousands of years the Indian Ocean had been the crossroads of the World's Trade from Canton to Cairo and from Burma to Baghdad this was all done through a complex interlocking of trading systems Maritime Styles cultures and religions not to mention a

series of important hubs Malacca on the melee Peninsula larger than Venice for goods from China Calicut on the western coast of India for Pepper or Muzz gateway to the Persian Gulf in Baghdad Aiden at the entrance of the Red Sea in the routes to Cairo which was the nerve center the Islamic world it dispatched gold and slaves from Africa incense and dates from Arabia horses from Persia opium from Egypt porcelain from China sulfur from Sumatra diamonds from the Deccan Plateau no one had a monopoly on this terrain it was too extensive and complex it constituted

a vast and comparably peaceful free trade zone over half the world's wealth passed through its Waters in a commercial Commonwealth God it was said had given the sea in common end quote [Music] Vasco de Gama and his crew would face a very steep learning curve as they entered the bay they docked at a town in Mozambique this wasn't just a small village it was a sophisticated City dotted with buildings the vibrant port and mosques the sultan peacefully approached them confusing the Portuguese as being Muslim Traders Vasco de Gama to his credit played along to sustain

the ruse but their credibility soon came into question as their ships were in a deplorable State and the gifts that dagama could offer brass Bells Coral modest cloth were no more than trinkets to the sultan and his administrators and when nobody in the fleet could produce a Quran the sultan began to suspect that Vasco was not what he appeared despite the mounting tensions the sultan did provide the Portuguese Fleet a pilot when he was asked to do so however on March 10 1498 the ships docked at a nearby Island to conduct the Christian Mass the

loaned pilot seeing this fled and the gamma surmised correctly that their cover was blown it was time to get on the move but the prevailing winds prevented departure and their stores of water were running low on midnight of March 22nd Vasco de Gama returned to the city and attempted to secretly enter the harbor to obtain fresh water their presence was alerted and for the next three days the Sultan's men viciously fought him however the Portuguese brought their Cannon to bear and drove them back destroying a portion of the city in the process on March 25th

the Portuguese were able to seize water along with some hostages and then fled the port making it a point to bombard the city as they left sailing North was difficult the winds were just not favorable it wasn't until April 7th of 1498 that they arrived at the Port of Mombasa here the pattern would repeat the locals initially approached bearing gifts though the mood was much more cautious then later as the Sao Gabrielle was being brought into the harbor steered by local guides it rammed into another ship the Portuguese panicked and tortured the guide forcing a

confession that this had been done intentionally the people of the city retaliated by attempting to board the ships at night but this was eventually driven back once again it was time to move on however as the fleet made its way North it resorted to piracy attacking and seizing two ships along the way Vasco de Gama after all desperately wanted a pilot that could take him across the Indian Ocean but in this encounter he would come up empty-handed on April 1498 they arrived at the city of malindi in modern-day Kenya here the reception was much more

friendly albeit de Gama refused to go ashore however as the show of Goodwill he did release his prisoners diplomacy in this case worked Roger Crowley brings it home quote Vasco de Gama was anxious to obtain a pilot and it took another hostage seizure to extract one the sultan dispatched a quote Christian who was willing to steer the expedition across the ocean to their desired destination it was more likely a Gujarati Muslim who possessed the chart of the Western Indian Ocean and was familiar with quadrants for taking astronomical observations 500 years later Arab captains would still

be cursing this Pilot's name who was the first to let the Portuguese into the secrets of the ocean's navigation eventually the locals would refer to the Portuguese by the derogatory Hindi name for Foreigner they would call them the farenghi end quote on April 24 1498 the Portuguese departed malindi with the monsoon winds at their back they left the African Coast well behind them they traveled in the northeastern Direction and on April 29th the gamma spotted the North Star once again on May 18th after 23 days on the open ocean high mountains were spotted on the

horizon these were the Western ghats a chain of mountains on the western coast of India overall it had been 309 days since they left Portugal the fleet had gone 12 000 miles they had finally arrived along the Malabar Coast the Magnificent trading Hub of Calicut was nearby this was a grand moment in history Vasco de Gama had done it he had discovered a sea Passage to India the fleet quickly made its way to Calicut and its extraordinary markets of spice everybody on board could tell that there was vast wealth to be had that said wherever

there was extreme wealth there would also be extreme danger Vasco de Gama is men and his ships were now sailing right into the middle of it foreign [Music] thank you