From combined dispatches
Portugal has been an independent country since the 12th century, when, following the Crusades, it succeeded in expelling the Moors — Muslims who had invaded the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa centuries before. Soon it captured a foothold at Ceuta on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, and others on the west coast of Africa, from which Portugal sought a passage to Asia and its wealth of spices, gold and silk.
Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) was the first European to round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, leading a naval expedition from the South Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in 1497 and stopping at trading ports in East Africa. The Muslims were not happy to see European ships in their trade areas, but there was strong rivalry among Arab-controlled ports and the Portuguese were not harmed. From Kenya, da Gama’s squadron took on a famous Arab navigator who guided the Portuguese ships all the way to the west coast of India, which was then divided among many rulers.
The Portuguese reached Calicut (now Kozhikode, on the Malabar coast in present-day Kerala state), in May 1498, where the Hindu ruler was initially pleased to meet da Gama and his men. But the Indians refused to trade after seeing the paltry goods the Portuguese had brought, and the Europeans sailed for home in August with instructions to bring gold, silver, coral and red cloth if they wanted to barter. The trip home to Portugal took more than a year because many of the sailors died of scurvy, but da Gama was greeted as a hero in Lisbon where the king rewarded him lavishly.
Da Gama set out on his second expedition in February 1502 with 20 armed ships and bent on revenge. En route, the Portuguese ruthlessly killed many Muslims and Indians. When they reached Calicut at the end of October, its ruler was willing to deal but da Gama’s flotilla bombarded the city and seized it. This facilitated subsequent Portuguese conquests in the East Indies, and da Gama returned to Lisbon the following year.
On his last voyage to India, da Gama died of illness on Christmas Eve 1524, and his remains were returned to Portugal for burial.
Goa, about 300 miles north of Calicut, was an ancient Hindu city that was conquered by Muslim invaders in 1312 and had changed hands several times. It surrendered without a fight to the Portuguese explorer Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510, but was besieged by a Muslim army for several months that year before the Portuguese escaped in their ships.
De Albuquerque returned to Goa with a larger force late the same year, massacred the Muslims and appointed a Hindu governor.
Goa became the first Portuguese territory in Asia, and for four and a half centuries it was the administrative center of Lisbon’s empire in the Far East. Except for temporary occupations by European rivals in the 19th century, the small province remained Portuguese until December 1961, when it was occupied by Indian military forces and incorporated into the Indian union the following year.
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