The "Legend" of Vasco da Gama
Cross-Cultural Networks in Early Modern Goa, India
Marvelous land, fortunate garden! |
Nowadays we have at least a slight idea of how the rest of the world looks like. Google “India” and you will have impressions of the looks of it in just a click of a second. But imagine when this was not possible. When you have heard about the “mysterious East” and what it might look like and you have seen the merchandise that has travelled over thousands of miles of land-routes, but to see the place where it originally came from? For many this was a “no” and for many explorers this was just a dream. However, on May 20, 1498, Vasco da Gama and his Portuguese fleet arrived at the Indian coast near Calicut. He was the first to sail along Africa to India; a milestone within the history of European expansion. The wish of the Portuguese for discovering a new sea-route around the Cape of Good Hope to India, known as the “Carreira da Índia”, and hence profit from the lucrative spice trade, was now fulfilled.
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Cross-Cultural Networks in an Established Over-Seas Empire: Goa & Networking AnalysisIn doing network analysis it will show how the West connected to the East. It will show that the very first established network of Da Gama in India was mainly peaceful and within the interest of trading-partnership. However, as soon as Da Gama returned to Portugal, fleets were sent out over the newly discovered sea-route and this peaceful mutual trading-partnership would soon turn into domination and it would also receive a religious aspect within the network.
Goa is a very good example of how trading-interest and religious-driven expansion come together. Under the Portuguese, Goa, “where the Muslim North and the Hindu South met”, was transformed to a major exchange centre, for it was a very geo-strategic port. It would function as the capital of the Estado da India (Portuguese India). But as soon as Goa was conquered by the Portuguese, religious intolerance would reach its zenith in the following hundred years. Missionary Fancis Xavier requested a Catholic expedition in India and the Goa Inquisition was installed in 1560. Conversion took place on a mass-scale of people from different faiths. The Goan people either had to convert or they were killed (if they did not flee). Muslims were particular victims of hatred by the Portuguese. The Portuguese had a long history of hostile relations with Muslim society, as the Iberian Peninsula was ruled by a series of dominant Muslim dynasties for almost eight hundred years since 711. This background must be kept in mind, for it contributed to the crusading-mentality that the Portuguese brought with them to India. In short, it seems that the establishment of the Portuguese Empire in India cannot solely characterize the Portuguese expansion to the Indian Ocean, but also by their crusader-spirit for spreading Christianity and their centuries old strife with Muslim society. |
Image III: Francis Xavier is asking John III of Portugal for a Catholic expedition to Portuguese India.
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