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In 1487, Bartolomeu Dias discovered that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans were connected.ĭa Gama who was keenly interested in navigation knew that if Indian and Atlantic Oceans connect at the end of Africa, he could find the way to reach India through the last point of land in Africa. The voyages funded by him were first steps in making Portugal, a maritime and colonial power. Henry of Portugal, aka Henry - The Navigator who was the Duke of Viseu had patronised several successful voyages in North and West Africa. His predecessor navigators helped him understand sea routes

Da Gama joined the Portuguese navy in the 1480s where he learnt how to navigate. His father, Estevao, was also an explorer.

Vasco Da Gama was born in 1460 to a family of nobles in Sines, Portugal. Here is the story of Vasco Da Gama, how he discovered the sea route to India and how his discovery paved way for the arrival of Dutch, French, Danish, and the British.

Vasco Da Gama voyaged to India thrice (1497-98, 1502-03, and 1524) before he died in India in 1524. That was until Da Gama discovered a route sailing adjacent to the western coast of Africa, reaching the last point of Africa which the Portuguese garrulously called ‘Cape of Good Hope’ and then sailed along the eastern coast of Africa till Mozambique and then sailed through the Arabian sea to reach Calicut.ĭiscovery of India by Da Gama is considered to be the milestone in the field of navigation and riches of Silk and Spices of Far East lands like India and China turned the otherwise curiosity of Western countries into greed and lust for wealth. Vasco Da Gama, The Royal Museum Greenwichīut the sea route to India was still unknown.

But they all came through the land route or precisely via the infamous Khyber Pass. Many sailors from the Western world sailed to discover the land in the Far East called India - a land fabled to be richer than all the known worlds put combined.īut none succeeded except for Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese sailor who became the first European to land in India on when he landed on the shores of Calicut in Kerala with four vessels.Ĭhristopher Columbus who had started his voyage in 1492, five years before Da Gama too wanted to discover the sea route to India, but instead reached the Americas, the world completely unheard before then.īy then India had already seen many foreign invaders in the form of Alexander -The Great, the Arabs, and the Mongols.