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When was Vasco da Gama born and died?
Vasco da Gama, Portuguese Vasco da Gama, 1er conde da Vidigueira, (born c. 1460, Sines, Portugal—died December 24, 1524, Cochin, India), Portuguese navigator whose voyages to India (1497–99, 1502–03, 1524) opened up the sea route from western Europe to the East by way of the Cape of Good Hope.
What year was Vasco da Gama born?
1469Vasco da Gama / Date of birthBorn circa 1460, Vasco da Gama was the son of a minor nobleman who commanded the fortress at Sines, located on the coast of the Alentejo province in southwestern Portugal.
When and where did Vasco da Gama arrived?
On 20th May 1498, two years after he set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, Vasco da Gama arrived on the Western sea coast of India at Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala. This was the first time that a European had arrived in India via the sea. Thus, da Gama is credited with the discovery of the sea route to India.
Where and when did Vasco da Gama died?
Death & Legacy Taken to the house of a Portuguese settler called Diogo Pereira, Vasco da Gama there spent his final days. He died on Christmas Eve in 1524. He was interred in the Santo António church in Cochin, but his remains, as he had wished, were then returned to Portugal some years later.
Who found India first?
explorer Vasco de GamaPortuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrives at Calicut on the Malabar Coast. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, in July 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and anchored at Malindi on the east coast of Africa.
Who came India first?
Vasco da GamaThe first successful voyage to India was by Vasco da Gama in 1498, when after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope he arrived in Calicut, now in Kerala.
Who discovered the sea route to India in 1498?
Vasco da Gama'sVasco da Gama's name has figured in all history books, whether they relate to World, European,1 Asian or Indian history,2 as a great sailor and adventurer. He has been solely credited with the honour of having discovered the sea-route from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope.
Who ruled India in 1498?
Da Gama led two of the Portuguese India Armadas, the first and the fourth....Vasco da GamaSucceeded byHenrique de MenezesPersonal detailsBorn1460 or 1469 Sines, Alentejo, Kingdom of Portugal15 more rows
What happened in the year 1498?
July 31 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit the island of Trinidad. August 1 – Columbus discovers the mouth of the Orinoco. August 4–12 – Columbus explores the Gulf of Paria. September 20 – 1498 Nankai earthquake off the coast of Japan.
Who defeated Vasco da Gama?
Battle of Calicut (1503)Battle of CalicutPortuguese EmpireCalicut Arab privateersCommanders and leadersVasco da GamaKhoja Kassein CojambarStrength6 more rows
How many times did Vasco da Gama came to India?
Vasco da Gama visited India thrice - in 1498 CE, 1501 CE, and 1524 CE. However, on his third voyage in 1524 CE, he fell ill and died in Cochin.
Did Vasco da Gama come Goa?
His initial voyage to India (1497–1499) was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and, in this way, the West and the East. He reached Goa on 11 September 1524 but died at Kochi three months later.
Who is Vasco da Gama for kids?
Vasco da Gama – Explorer. Vasco da Gama, was a Portuguese explorer who was commander of the first ships to sail straight from Europe to India. Vasco da Gama was born either in 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal.
What are some fun facts about Vasco da Gama?
Fun Facts about Vasco da GamaOriginally Vasco's father, Estevao, was going to be given the command of the exploration fleet, but the trip was delayed for many years. ... There is a crater named Vasco da Gama on the Moon.His fleet on the second voyage consisted of 20 armed ships.He had six sons and one daughter.
How old was Vasco da Gama when he died?
55 years (1469–1524)Vasco da Gama / Age at death
What things did Vasco da Gama discover?
Vasco De Gama was the first European to find an ocean trading route to India. He accomplished what many explorers before him could not do. His discovery of this sea route helped the Portuguese establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia and Africa.
Who were Vasco da Gama’s parents?
Although his exact birth date is unknown, Vasco da Gama was the third son of Estêvão da Gama, a minor provincial nobleman who was commander of the...
What was Vasco da Gama best known for?
Vasco da Gama was best known for being the first to sail from Europe to India by rounding Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Over the course of two voyage...
What did Vasco da Gama discover?
During Vasco da Gama’s first voyage, he carried padrões (stone pillars) as marks of discovery. He erected one on an island near Mossel Bay, South A...
Where did Vasco da Gama go?
Vasco da Gama’s Early Life and First Voyage to India. Born circa 1460, Vasco da Gama was the son of a minor nobleman who commanded the fortress at Sines, located on the coast of the Alentejo province in southwestern Portugal.
How many days did Vasco da Gama spend at sea?
Did you know? By the time Vasco da Gama returned from his first voyage to India in 1499, he had spent more than two years away from home, including 300 days at sea, and had traveled some 24,000 miles. Only 54 of his original crew of 170 men returned with him; the majority (including da Gama's brother Paolo) had died of illnesses such as scurvy.
Why did Da Gama come to Goa?
Da Gama arrived in Goa with the task of combating the growing corruption that had tainted the Portuguese government in India. He soon fell ill, and in December 1524 he died in Cochin. His body was later taken back to Portugal for burial there.
Why did King John send da Gama to the Algarve?
Little else is known about his early life, but in 1492 King John II sent da Gama to the port city of Setubal (south of Lisbon) and to the Algarve region to seize French ships in retaliation for French attacks on Portuguese shipping interests.
What was Vasco da Gama's last voyage?
Da Gama’s Later Life and Last Voyage to India. The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa before reaching ...
Why did Da Gama sail from Lisbon?
Da Gama sailed from Lisbon that July with four vessels, traveling south along the coast of Africa before veering far off into the southern Atlantic in order to avoid unfavorable currents.
When did Gama reach India?
With the help of a local navigator, da Gama was able to cross the Indian Ocean and reach the coast of India at Calicut (now Kozhikode) in May 1498.
Who was Vasco da Gama?
1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.
What did Vasco da Gama do when he became king?
Upon becoming king in 1481, John II of Portugal set out on many long reforms. To break the monarch's dependence on the feudal nobility, John II needed to build up the royal treasury; he considered royal commerce to be the key to achieving that.
What was Vasco da Gama's plan for the 4th Armada?
Vasco da Gama invoked his royal letter to take command of the 4th India Armada, scheduled to set out in 1502, with the explicit aim of taking revenge upon the Zamorin and force him to submit to Portuguese terms. The heavily armed fleet of fifteen ships and eight hundred men left Lisbon on 12 February 1502. It was followed in April by another squadron of five ships led by his cousin, Estêvão da Gama (the son of Aires da Gama), which caught up to them in the Indian Ocean. The 4th Armada was a veritable da Gama family affair. Two of his maternal uncles, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, were pre-designated to command an Indian Ocean naval patrol, while brothers-in-law Álvaro de Ataíde (brother of Vasco's wife Catarina) and Lopo Mendes de Vasconcelos (betrothed to Teresa da Gama, Vasco's sister) captained ships in the main fleet.
How many people were on the ship Vasco da Gama?
On 8 July 1497 Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back was greater than the length of the equator. The navigators included Portugal's most experienced, Pero de Alenquer, Pedro Escobar, João de Coimbra, and Afonso Gonçalves. It is not known for certain how many people were in each ship's crew but approximately 55 returned, and two ships were lost. Two of the vessels were carracks, newly built for the voyage; the others were a caravel and a supply boat.
What gifts did Gama send to the Zamorin?
The presents that da Gama sent to the Zamorin as gifts from Dom Manuel – four cloaks of scarlet cloth, six hats, four branches of corals, twelve almasares, a box with seven brass vessels, a chest of sugar, two barrels of oil and a cask of honey – were trivial, and failed to impress.
Where did the Da Gama expedition go?
The expedition set sail from Lisbon on 8 July 1497. It followed 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, da 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 4 November 1497, the expedition made landfall on the African coast. For over three months the ships had sailed more than 10,000 kilometres (6,000 mi) of open ocean, by far the longest journey out of sight of land made by that time.
Where is the statue of Vasco da Gama?
Bronze statue of Vasco da Gama at his birthplace, Sines, Portugal. Vasco da Gama was born in 1460 or 1469 in the town of Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, southwest Portugal, probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas.
Where was Da Gama born?
Early Years. Da Gama was born into a noble family around 1460 in Sines, Portugal. Little is known about his upbringing except that he was the third son of Estêvão da Gama, who was commander of the fortress in Sines in the southwestern pocket of Portugal.
What was the first voyage of the Gama?
First Voyage. Historians know little about why exactly da Gama, still an inexperienced explorer, was chosen to lead the expedition to India in 1497. On July 8 of that year, he captained a team of four vessels, including his flagship, the 200-ton St. Gabriel, to find a sailing route to India and the East.
What happened to the first ship in the Gama fleet?
By early 1499, several crew members had died of scurvy and in an effort to economize his fleet, da Gama ordered one of his ships to be burned. The first ship in the fleet didn't reach Portugal until July 10, nearly a full year after they'd left India.
How long did the Gama crew stay in Calicut?
Still, the local Hindu ruler welcomed da Gama and his men, at first, and the crew ended up staying in Calicut for three months. Not everyone embraced their presence, especially Muslim traders who clearly had no intention of giving up their trading grounds to Christian visitors.
Why did Gama return to India?
Late in life, after the death of King Manuel, da Gama was asked to return to India, in an effort to contend with the growing corruption from Portuguese officials in the country.
How many people survived the first voyage of the Gama?
In all, da Gama's first journey covered nearly 24,000 miles in close to two years, and only 54 of the crew's original 170 members survived.
Where did Gama go to set ablaze?
He and his crew terrorized Muslim ports up and down the African east coast, and at one point, set ablaze a Muslim ship returning from Mecca, killing the several hundreds of people (including women and children) who were on board. Next, the crew moved to Calicut, where they wrecked the city's trade port and killed 38 hostages. From there, they moved to the city of Cochin, a city south of Calicut, where da Gama formed an alliance with the local ruler.
Where did Vasco da Gama live?
Vasco da Gama was 64 and living at his house in Portugal with his wife, Cateriana de Ataide, and his 6 sons when in 1524 King John III named him Viceroy to India. He had planned to settle down and enjoy his retirement in Portugal, but all of that changed.
What was Vasco da Gama's family?
Vasco da Gama families were normal families that had intelligent men in it. In 1497, when he was a 38-year old bachelor, da Gama was selected by King Manuel I of Portugal to follow up the discovery of Bartholomew Diaz of a great ocean east off the Cape of Good Hope. His family was not originally from Portugal, but da Gama did not think of any place but Portugal as his home.
Where was Alvaro da Gama born?
Portuguese navigator and discoverer of the sea route to India, was born at Sines, a small seaport in the province of Alemtejo. Of da Gama’s early history little is known. His descent, according to the Nobiliario of Antonio de Lima, was derived from a noble family which is mentioned in the year 1166; but the line cannot be traced without interruption farther back than the year 1280, to one Alvaro da Gama, from whom was descended Estevão da Gama, civil governor of Sines, whose third son Vasco was born probably about the year 1460.
Where was Gama buried?
He had to go to India and make sure everything was running fine. Along the way on the voyage, da Gama fell ill. Da Gama died in India shortly after arrival on December 24, 1524. He was buried in India. Later, in 1539, his remains were reburied in a chapel in Vidigueira, Portugal.
Overview
Early life
Vasco da Gama was born in 1460 in the town of Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, southwest Portugal, probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas.
Vasco da Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu. He rose in the ra…
Exploration before da Gama
From the earlier part of the 15th century, Portuguese expeditions organized by Prince Henry the Navigator had been reaching down the African coastline, principally in search of west African riches (notably, gold and slaves). They had greatly extended Portuguese maritime knowledge, but had little profit to show for the effort. After Henry's death in 1460, the Portuguese Crown showed little …
First voyage
On 8 July 1497 Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back was greater than the length of the equator. The navigators included Portugal's most experienced, Pero de Alenquer, Pedro Escobar, João de Coimbra, and Afonso Gonçalves. It is not known for certain how many people were in each s…
Rewards
In December 1499, King Manuel I of Portugal rewarded Vasco da Gama with the town of Sines as a hereditary fief (the town his father, Estêvão, had once held as a commenda). This turned out to be a complicated affair, for Sines still belonged to the Order of Santiago. The master of the Order, Jorge de Lencastre, might have endorsed the reward – after all, da Gama was a Santiago knight, o…
Second voyage
The follow-up expedition, the Second India Armada, launched in 1500 under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral with the mission of making a treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut and setting up a Portuguese factory in the city. However, Pedro Cabral entered into a conflict with the local Arab merchant guilds, with the result that the Portuguese factory was overrun in a riot and up to 70 Portuguese were killed. Cabral blamed the Zamorin for the incident and bombarded the city. Thu…
Interlude
For the next two decades, Vasco da Gama lived out a quiet life, unwelcome in the royal court and sidelined from Indian affairs. His attempts to return to the favor of Manuel I (including switching over to the Order of Christ in 1507), yielded little. Almeida, the larger-than-life Afonso de Albuquerque and, later on, Albergaria and Sequeira, were the king's preferred point men for India.
After Ferdinand Magellan defected to the Crown of Castile in 1518, Vasco da Gama threatened to …
Third voyage and death
After the death of King Manuel I in late 1521, his son and successor, King John III of Portugal set about reviewing the Portuguese government overseas. Turning away from the old Albuquerque clique (now represented by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira), John III looked for a fresh start. Vasco da Gama re-emerged from his political wilderness as an important adviser to the new king's appointments and strategy. Seeing the new Spanish threat to the Maluku Islands as the priority, V…