Gama, Vasco da, 1st count da Vidigueira

Knight of the Order of Christ, detail identified as Vasco da Gama, …

(credit: Courtesy of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon)

(born c. 1460, Sines, Port.—died Dec. 24, 1524, Cochin, India) Portuguese navigator. On his first voyage to India (1497–99), he traveled around the Cape of Good Hope with four ships, visiting trading cities in Mozambique and Kenya en route. Portugal's King Manuel I acted quickly to open trade routes with India, but a massacre of Portuguese in India caused him to dispatch a fleet of 20 ships in 1502, led by da Gama, to establish Portuguese supremacy in the region. Da Gama, then an admiral, forced allegiance along the way from local rulers and attacked Arab shipping. After various battles, he secured obedience to Portuguese rule and returned home. In 1524 he was appointed Portuguese viceroy in India but died shortly after arriving in Goa. His voyages to India opened the sea route from western Europe to the East.