Vasco da Gama - Explorer | Mini Bio | BIO

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was the first person to successfully sail from Europe around Africa to Southeast Asia. Vasco da Gama was the one who opened up the maritime trade route between Europe and Asia. In my view, his going through the South Atlantic and around the Cape was equivalent to our putting a man on the moon. Born to a noble family in Sines, Portugal around 1469, Vasco da Gama took to the sea at an early age. Vasco da Gama worked on merchant ships in the king's service, learning how to be a navigator, learning all of the things that he would later need to know in order to command an expedition. Da Gama earned a commission to find a sea route to India and set sail with a four-ship expedition in July 1497 from Lisbon down the coast of Africa. So the prevailing winds moved north, you're trying to sail south. Da Gama sailed out into the Atlantic basically almost as far as Brazil. Once there, da Gama was able to use the prevailing southern winds to take him south past Africa. What's historic about da Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope is precisely that da Gama figured out how to do this. He is the first one successfully to get into the Indian Ocean, work his way up the coast of East Africa, and ultimately reach India. The water route from Europe to Asia was very important because it gave direct access to the spices of the Far East. Vasco da Gama is welcomed as a hero on his return to Lisbon to 1499 because the profits made from the goods that he had brought back from India demonstrated the wealth that could be achieved from this new route linking Portugal directly with Indian Ocean markets. Da Gama covered more than 24,000 miles in his historic trip to India, and of the 170 original crew members, only 54 made it home alive. In 1502, King Manuel tapped da Gama to lead this larger expedition to again initiate trade directly between Portugal and the spice markets of India. This expedition from the Portuguese point of view is a success because da Gama is able to force his way into the markets, and when I say force, I mean using cannons, to literally blast his way into the harbor and force the rulers to trade with him. Upon da Gama's return to Portugal two years later, he retired from exploration and became King Manuel's advisor. However, in 1524, the new king, John III, persuaded him to return to India to become its viceroy. He died in India in 1538. Because Vasco da Gama found this route to India, he succeeded in making Portugal a principal supplier of high-profit luxury commodities like pepper to the European markets. This in turn made the Portuguese state extremely wealthy and turned Portugal into a great power.