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As Vasco da Gama forced his way up the East African
coast, he sought a pilot who could guide his ships to India.
But da Gama was not the most patient or forgiving of
Portuguese explorers and his quick, violent temper made the
task more difficult; a minor incident in Mozambique prompted
da Gama to bombard the city. It would only be at Kilwa that
a suitable pilot could be found. Ibn Majid, the most
distinguished Asian navigator of his time, was retained by
the Portuguese captain. Under Majid's expert guidance, the
Portuguese ships quickly made their way to western India.
"On Friday, 18th May," wrote da Gama in his Journal, "after
having seen no land for twenty-three days, we sighted lofty
mountains, and having all this time sailed before the wind
we could not have made less than 600 leagues. The land, when
first sighted, was at a distance of eight leagues, and our
lead reached bottom at forty-five fathoms." After finally
landing in Calicut, da Gama's journal records that the
Portuguese sailor was greeted with the words "May the
devil take thee! What brought you hither?" When asked what
he sought so far away from home, da Gama replied that he
came in search of Christians and of spices.
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This was not, however, the Orient that the European
captain thought he would encounter. Instead of finding a
single opulent realm, da Gama found innumerable states with
a vast and complex commercial network. Perhaps more
surprising was that in the Indian Ocean ports that it had
taken the Portuguese nearly a century to find by sea, da
Gama found merchants who for centuries had been trading
European metals and gold bullion for Indian and imported
spices through the Venetians. In addition to European goods,
da Gama also saw items from North Africa and Malaya, and
gold and ivory from East Africa. The distances involved
astounded da Gama.
As an example of how vast these trading routes were, we
have only to look at the trade in the Indian Ocean, where
the prevailing monsoons determined the course of trade.
Between November and April, the monsoons blow from the
north-east and from May to October, the monsoons blow from
the south-west. In southern Malay, where the north-east
winds of the Indian Ocean meet the south-west winds of the
China seas, Malacca emerged as the "richest place in the
world". In Malacca, the Portuguese found the business of the
city was conducted by all manner of merchants and seamen.
Merchants gathered from the furthest reaches of the known
world, Tunis and China, bringing with them Chinese silks,
Indian textiles, East Indian spices, and European goods that
arrived via Cairo and Aden. The merchants were Christians,
many more were Hindu, but all managed to co-exist peacefully
in this environment, and the Portuguese soon discovered that
most seamen and traders in the Indian Ocean and beyond were
Muslims, a forbidding development for da Gama who when asked
what had brought him across such a great distance replied
"Christians and spices".
In India, da Gama encountered the same difficulties he
had when his ships were in Indian Ocean ports. Without
suitable goods to trade, Portuguese attempts to enter the
lucrative commerce of the region were unsuccessful.
Furthermore, Portuguese arrogance and disregard for local
custom soon eroded the initial goodwill displayed by the
Hindu raja. In certain instances, the Portuguese improperly
worshiped at Hindu shrines, and da Gama kidnapped some of
the local inhabitants to serve as interpreters for
subsequent voyages, all of which served to antagonise the
local population. Perhaps more importantly, local merchants,
who learned of Portuguese behaviour in Africa and who were
seeing it displayed in their own country, had no desire to
see their livelihood destroyed and refused to trade with the
Europeans.
Approximately half the fleet with which da Gama departed
Lisbon two years before survived to make the return voyage
home. As a feat of nautical endurance and skill, da Gama's
voyage was a superb testament to the raw maritime skills of
the Portuguese - nearly 300 days were spent at sea. But it
must be remembered that the sea route to India was found
only with the expert guidance of Ibn Majid who knew how to
properly use the wind system of the Indian Ocean.
Da Gama was amply rewarded for his services despite the
fact that he did not return with the desired alliances, nor
was he able to secure any commercial concessions. Still,
while in Calicut, the Portuguese captain took into his
service a Tunisian Muslim and a Spanish Jew from whom he
learned some of the intricacies of the Asian economy and how
it might be manipulated to serve Portuguese interests. Armed
with this important information, King Manuel I was
determined to establish a monopoly on the spice trade of the
Indian Ocean by "cruel war with fire and sword".
MARITIME TRADE
After Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, the Portuguese
Crown moved to secure the safety of the sea route and sent
da Gama to accomplish this task. During his voyage, da Gama
encountered stiff Muslim opposition to Portuguese attempts
to enter the trade of the Indian Ocean, and consequently the
Portuguese captain believed he would have to force his way
into the market. Fortunately for the Portuguese, the empires
of Egypt, Persia and Vijayanagar did not arm their vessels,
if they had ships at all. Malay vessels, primarily known as
lanchara, were small, single square-rigged vessels
steered by two oars mounted in the stern. By and large, most
Muslim merchants had large ocean-faring ships, complemented
by smaller coastal ships, but even these were not outfitted
to carry artillery and no iron was used in their hull
construction. Consequently, the merchants' vessels were much
more susceptible to damage than were the Portuguese ships
and this meant that the Portuguese were able to gain control
of the Indian Ocean with relative ease.
Prior to the emergence of the Portuguese, control of
maritime trade in the Indian Ocean was established
peacefully. Over the centuries, a mutually beneficial
relationship developed between Muslim traders and Hindu
merchants and the Portuguese could offer little in the way
of goods or services to supplant the established network.
Moreover, the Portuguese believed that Venetian merchants
were monopolising trade of European goods and preventing
them from gaining access to the lucrative markets in the
Indian Ocean. The Portuguese quickly surmised that they
could only change the status quo by resorting to
brute force.
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