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Who discovered the sea route to India?


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Solution

Vasco Da Gama discovered the sea route to India in the year 1498. On 20th May 1498, two years after he set his sail from Lisbon, Portugal, Vasco da Gama arrived on the Western sea coast of India at Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala. This was the first time when a European had arrived in India via the sea. Hence, Vasco da Gama is credited with the discovery of the sea route to India. Sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition had numerous halts in Africa before reaching the trading post of Calicut.

Arrival of Vasco da Gama

  • A huge number of sailors and merchants from the west tried to discover a sea route to India. India was widely popular for spices and other riches in that period.
  • Christopher Columbus, in 1492, had inadvertently discovered when the Americas really wanted to reach the coast of India.
  • Then, Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer succeeded in discovering the sea route. I
  • The goods from India and the Orient were in massive demand in Europe. Spices were a huge export element.
  • It is known that an Indian from Kenya helped da Gama with the directions to the subcontinent and also informed him about the monsoons.
  • On May 20th, 1498, da Gama reached Kappad, near Kozhikode, which was then part of the Kingdom of the Zamorin (Samuthiri Raja) of Calicut.
  • Vasco Da Gama was given a hero’s welcome and was also given the title ‘Dom’ by the king. The expedition had brought in cargo that was valued at more than 60 times the expedition’s cost.
  • There would be more number of Portuguese armadas to India which changed the face of the subcontinent in more ways than one.
  • Starting as a trading partner, Portugal went on to colonize parts of India.
  • The biggest Portugal colony in India, Goa remained under Portuguese rule for over 450 years, starting in 1505 and ending only in 1961 after the Indian army liberated the state.
  • Though the Portuguese were suppressed by other European powers in the subcontinent, the discovery of the sea route to India is often considered a vital discovery and is known as the Age of Discovery.
  • The European colonization of India had its early origins only after this watershed moment.

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