The Portuguese in India

The Portuguese in India: 

The arrival of Vasco da Gama, a nobleman from the household of the King of Portugal, at the port of Calicut in south-west India Inaugurated on 27 May the 1498th a new, and extremely unpleasant, Chapter in Indian history.   

For some time, the Portuguese, among Other Europeans, had been looking for a Route to sea India, But they had been unable to break free of the stranglehold exercised by Egyptian rulers over the trade between Europe and Asia.  

 The Red Sea State MONOPOLY Trade Route was a tremendous revenues earned from which Islamic Rulers.   In the fifteenth century, the Mantle of Christendom's resistance to Islam had upon Fallen Portugal; Moreover, the Portuguese had inherited the Genoese exploration of Tradition.   

It is reported that the Idea of an Ocean Route to Finding Become an Obsession for Henry the Navigator had Ocean (1394-1460), and he was also a Way to Find Keen to circumvent the Muslim domination of the eastern Mediterranean and all the routes that connected India to Europe.   

In the 1,454th, Henry received a Bull from Pope Nicholas V, which Conferred him on the Right to navigate the "Distant shores of the sea to the Orient", more Specifically "As Far As India", Whose inhabitants were brought to BE to help Christians" Against the Enemies of the Faith ".  

 The pagans, wherever they might BE, "not yet afflicted with the Plague of Islam" were given to BE the "Knowledge of the name of Christ . "   By the terms of the Treaty of Trodesilhas (in 1494), All new Territories were divided between Spain and Portugal.    The Stage was thus for the Portuguese incursions into the Waters surrounding SET India.

In 1487, the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the "Cape of Good Hope", and so opened the sea route to India.   An expedition of Four Ships headed out to India in 1497, and arrived in India  in  slightly less than Eleven months' time.   

The coming of the Portuguese introduced several new Indian history into Factors.   As Almost Every Historian has observed, it might not only initiated BE called What the European era, the Emergence of Naval POWER Marked it. 

  Doubtless , the Cholas, among others, had been a naval power, but for the first time a foreign power had come to India by way of the sea; Moreover, Portuguese dominance would only to Extend the coasts, Since they never were able to Make Inroads into the Indian Interior Any significant.   

The Portuguese carried Ships Cannon, but the significance of this is not commonly realized, especially by those who are inclined to merely One of a Series of view As the Portuguese invaders of India, or even As of Specimens 'Enterprising' Europeans whose mission it was to energize the 'lazy natives'.  

 For Centuries, the Numerous participants in the Indian Ocean trading System - Indians, Arabs , Africans from the East coast, Chinese, Javanese, Sumatrans, among others - had plowed the sea routes and Tacit Various rules of conduct adhered to. 

  Though All were  in the Trade for Profit, As Expected BE might, no Party to Have Sought overwhelming dominance; One certainly had no Sought to Enforce Arms through their POWER.   

Trade Flourished, and All the Parties played their role in putting Down Piracy:   this was a zone free Trade.   Into this Arena stepped forth the Portuguese, who at once declared their intention to abide by no rules except their own, and who sought immediate and decisive advantage over the Indians and over the     Indian Ocean trading system.

In a word, the conduct of the Portuguese in India was 'barbaric'.  

 Vasco da Gama's Initial SET conduct the tone.   On his Way to India, He encountered an unarmed vessel returning from Mecca; As a contemporary Portuguese Source States, da Gama ordered the ship Emptied of its Goods, and then had it on SET Fire, prohibiting "Any Moor" from being Taken Alive it.   He then Spent Four months in India.  

 Having waited out the Monsoons, he out to SET to ReturnPortugal with a cargo worth sixty times what he had brought with him, and refused to pay the customary port duties to the Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut. 

  Ensure that his Way To Obstructed BE would not, he took with him a FEW Hostages.   When he returned to Portugal in 1499, he brought with him the pepper was sold at an enormous Profit; Underscores the Importance of Direct Access and nothing to the fact that the pepper Trade As much As elsewhere the Europeans, who relied on Muslim Middlemen, ten times would Have to Spend the Same As much for AMOUNT of pepper.   

Emboldened by this SUCCESS, King Dom Pedro Cabral of Another Six Ships Sent expedition headed by manuel.   With their usual ignorance of, and disdain for, Local customs, Cabral and the Portuguese Sent a messenger to a Low-caste Hindu As Zamorin upon their arrival at the port. 

  Meanwhile, the Historian As KM Panikkar has written, the Portuguese were claiming the sole Right to the sea; in the words of Barroes, "It is True that there does exist a Common Right to navigate the Seas and in to All Europe HOLD Against us we acknowledge the rights which others; but this does not Right Extend beyond Europe; Therefore the Portuguese As Lords of the Sea are Justified and in confiscating the Goods of the Seas All those navigate without their permission "(P. 41) .   

Cabral All Arab Vessels attacked within his reach, which Provoked at a Riot that the destruction of the port LED to the Portuguese factory.  Cabral Retaliated known in the only Way to a Portuguese bandit of Marauder and his times:   he Massacred the Crews of the boats, and Burnt All the Ships that were not his own. 

  The intent, which would repeatedly Witnessed in the history of BE Portuguese interactions with the Indians (and with others), was to brutalize and Terrorize the Native Population, and Panikkar remarks, with evident justice, that Cabral's behavior persuaded the Indians that "the intruders were uncivilised barbarians, treacherous and untrustworthy" (p. 42).

Quotations are from Extracted KM Panikkar, Malabar and the Portuguese : Being a History of the Relations of the Portuguese from Malabar with 1.5 thousand to one thousand six hundred sixty-three (Bombay: DB Taraporevala, the 1,929th).