A Brief History of Portugal

Part 4 - Vasco da Gama & his route to the Indies

THE PORTUGUESE HISTORY fan club will, I have no doubt, recall that we left Christopher Columbus, the legendary world navigator, in the lurch a bit and not a particularly `happy bunny' in Part III.  If you remember he discovered what he thought was a short sea route to the Indies in 1492 for the Spanish.  It was they who financed his expedition after the Portuguese had turned him down. Quite understandably, I think in the circumstances, Columbus was furious when Dom João II claimed the landfall he had `discovered' already belonged to Portugal as it lay south of the Canaries.  Unfortunately, his downfall had only just begun, as we will see.

Dom Manuel I (The Fortunate): 1495-1521

Once it had been established that the landfall Columbus claimed for Spain originally, was not the Indies, Dom Manuel I continued with the previous king's obsession.  This was to put together a fleet of much heavier vessels, which could carry vast amounts of merchandise at a time.  The project was again dismissed as foolhardy and a waste of resources by the Cortes.  But a stubborn streak continued to run through the line of Kings, however, and so Dom Manuel I decided to run with the expedition anyway and self-finance.  This voyage of discovery was, for the first time, handed over to one Vasco da Gama (another figure that rushes out of history remembered from schooldays) who was a member of the Portuguese ruling elite.  Setting sail on 8^th July 1497, we are fortunate that the log survived, thereby reconfirming the actual route taken.  Passing the Cape Verde Islands, and sailing close to the Brazilian coast, the fleet eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope and anchored off Calicut, one of the largest emporiums in India, almost a year later on 20^th May 1498.

By all accounts, da Gama must have been a glutton for punishment.  Having just returned home from his initial expedition he was off again soon afterwards.  This time the whole return journey was completed in under a year but at what cost?  Half the crew died and he lost one of the ships at sea.  However, the importance of these expeditions can be judged by the fact that Vasco da Gama came home to a hero's welcome. In marked contrast, poor old Christopher Columbus had to accept that he had not found the quickest route to the Indies.  The Catholic kings were furious at what they thought was Columbus's treachery and after holding him in prison for a while, took back all the goods and property he had been awarded.

This was to be the start of a flood of expeditions to what the Portuguese called India to describe Asia and the Orient.  Although the `payback' from such voyages was enormous, it was achieved at a very high price in human lives.  It also meant that Portugal had to be prepared to defend its new empire by fighting off all and sundry, including the Turks.

Looking back to see where we are at present, there seems to have been nothing but Sea Shanties ringing in our ears.  That may be so and quite right too, bearing in mind how important the sea was to the Portuguese at this time.  But it probably needs putting into perspective.  If you think about it, this was precisely the time in history when all the European countries like Spain, Portugal and yes, England too, were very busy on the high seas.  After all, you can hardly claim to have discovered countries twice (although plenty of so-called discoverers have tried).  So it was `all hands on deck' (did you see how neatly I was able to get that nautical phrase in?) during the scramble to find new territories.  And then it was a case of domination, by persuasion or otherwise, of those countries and peoples who were lucky/unlucky enough to be `discovered'.

In the formative years of the struggle for supremacy, Afonso de Albuquerque, a prominent figure in this area of discoveries, devised an ingenious plan.  He came up with the idea of occupying various strategic trade routes to the east which would deny others access.  And he largely achieved this by occupying Ormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf in 1507 and Malacca on the shipping route towards the Pacific in 1511.  Despite these successes, however, it was a bitter blow when Albuquerque was not able to add Aden to his tally.  This meant letting the Turks, the other dominant force at this time, have unbridled use of the Red Sea.  There was some consolation for Albuquerque, in that he was still able to occupy several vitally important strategic positions for Portuguese trade.  These included Colombo on Ceylon Island, Pacém in Sumatra, and Ternate in the Moluccas.  Other vitally important staging posts, including Maçaim, Damão and Diu on the Western coast of the Indian Ocean, were also under Portuguese control during this heavy trading period of its history.

As early as 1500, yet another Portuguese mariner Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed to have been the one to discover Brazil, exerted what arms, ammunition and gentle `persuasion' he could muster.  At stake was the free passage of ships returning from their expeditions laden with extremely high-value spices, etc., which were all the rage at the time back in Europe. Unfortunately, despite being able to call on whatever support he required, Pedro's tactics didn't work.  In fact, hostilities in the area continued for another hundred and fifty years.  By then, the English and Dutch had become dominant in Orient trading areas, with the Portuguese slipping down below these two nations.

Right then, let's turn away from sea adventures for a moment. It was under Dom Manuel I's reign that, in 1496, moves were afoot to start expelling Jews from Portugal.  Many of them had paid substantial sums of money to be allowed into Portugal and had held high office in the financial areas of business in their new country.  And now, following their persecution and expulsion from Spain, thanks to the Catholic monarchs, they were again being hounded out of yet another country.  (Was there ever a time or country when it would have been safe to admit to being a Jew?)  It seems to me, that's the case with most religions, because just about this time the Muslims were starting to take exception to the Portuguese coming barging in trying to steal `their' Eastern trade especially.  At first they tried to get the support of the Indian princes who also resented Portugal interfering in their traditional trading areas.  Eventually, however, they teamed up with the Turkish squadrons to try to clear the whole area of Portuguese around the Indian Ocean.

In other areas of government, Dom Manuel I got personally involved in standardising weights and measures and putting into place a much better tax collection system.  Reforming areas of Law resulted in the issuing of various charters culminating in Ordenações Manuelinas in 1521.

Just as I know you were enjoying yourselves (I was anyway), it's once again time to call a halt to these proceedings.  But hark; did I hear a lone dissenting voice coming from the back?  Alright, you don't have to threaten me to a daybreak duel with bread rolls.  I agree it got a bit heavy towards the end and so I will do my best to lighten things a bit in next month's installment. See you then, I hope?

    David Devereux

     dfdev@btinternet.com

Why not now have a look at the Family Tree of Kings and Queens of Portugal?

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