Meet vasco da gama biography

His initial voyage to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope [ 3 ] — was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.

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This was a milestone in Portuguese maritime exploration which marked the beginning of a sea-based phase of globalization. Traveling the ocean route allowed the Portuguese to avoid sailing across the highly disputed Mediterranean Sea and traversing the dangerous Arabian Peninsula. The sum of the distances covered in the outward and return voyages made this expedition the longest ocean voyage ever made until then.

After decades of sailors trying to reach the Indies, with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, da Gama landed at Kozhikode on 20 May Unopposed access to the Indian spice routes boosted the economy of the Portuguese Empire , which was previously based along North and coastal West Africa. The main spices at first obtained from Southeast Asia were pepper and cinnamon, but soon included other products, all new to Europe.

Portugal maintained a commercial monopoly of these commodities for several decades. It was not until a century later that other European powers were able to challenge Portugal's monopoly and naval supremacy in the Cape Route. Da Gama led two of the Portuguese India Armadas , the first and the fourth.

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The latter was the largest and departed for India three years after his return from the first one. For his contributions, in da Gama was appointed Governor of India , with the title of Viceroy , and was ennobled as Count of Vidigueira in He remains a leading figure in the history of exploration, and homages worldwide have celebrated his explorations and accomplishments.

Vasco da Gama was born in the town of Sines , one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast in southwest Portugal. Little is known of da Gama's early life. Da Gama's near-contemporary Gaspar Correia and others have claimed that he studied under Abraham Zacuto , an astrologer and astronomer, but da Gama's biographer Sanjay Subrahmanyam thinks this dubious.