The Europeans & The start of a new Era in India (part-2)
So why the Portuguese the first one to come to India??
The other Europeans like the British, were busy with their own problems in the 15th century. Venice and Genoa through trade in oriental goods, had prospered earlier but were too small to go against the strong Ottoman empire and also to go on a major exploration alone.
The northern Europeans aided spain and portugal with men and money 💰. The genoese even provided their ships and technical knowledge.
The Portuguese were driven by not only their spirit of exploration but they also hoped to spread Christian faith to fight Islamic influence as they had assumed the leadership in Christiandom's resistance to Islam.
Also Prince Henry of Portugal, nicknamed "navigator"(1454),was obsessed with finding India or tobe specific, "the ocean route to india", along with finding a way to circumvent the Muslim domination of eastern Mediterranean and all the routes that connected india to Europe. But he died before his obsession or dream could come true.
In 1487, the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew dias, rounded around South Africa in a location called cape of good hope and sailed up the eastern coast. This man was convinced that kin sought route to india had been found but it was only 10 years later that the ships set out for India in 1497.
Why 1497??
In 7 June, 1494, the treaty of tordesillas was established, in which the rulers of Portugal and spain devided the non-Christian world between them by an imaginary line in Atlantic, some 1300 miles west of cape verde islands. This treaty stated that portugal could claim and occupy everything to the east of this line. Similarly, the spain could do the same to the west of this line. This prepared everything Portuguese required for their incursions into the waters around India.
After the ships sailed to India in 1497, the Portuguese ships took approximately 11 months to reach Indian coast.
In May 1498, three Portuguese ships under Vasco Da Gama, led by Gujarati pilot named Abdul Majid, at coast of Calicut.
Arrival of Vasco Da Gama in India is considered an important turning point in history by many historians.Sunscreen
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