In the meantime, Columbus - who learned his trade in Portugal - discovered what he believed to be a western route to the Indies (or possibly Japan) for Spain in 1492. Thinking it was hopeless, Portugal didn't attempt another southern run to India for 10 years. Nucup says that Dias didn't understand how the seasonal monsoons of the region worked, and that the winds actually switched directions for half the year. The winds and currents in the Indian Ocean blew northeast to southwest, making it all but impossible to cross the sea from Africa to India. In 1488, the Portuguese took the lead when Bartolomeu Dias successfully navigated around the Cape of Good Hope (Dias called it the 'Cape of Storms') in modern-day South Africa and became the first European to reach the Indian Ocean.īut Dias returned with bad news for King João II of Portugal. Over the course of two voyages, beginning in 14, da Gama landed and traded in locales along the coast of southern Africa before reaching India on May 20, 1498.In the 15th century, the Spanish and Portuguese were in a bitter race to find a sea route to India that bypassed the tortuously long and expensive overland trade route through unfriendly Ottoman and Egyptian territory. Vasco da Gama was best known for being the first to sail from Europe to India by rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy he died there of an illness in late 1524. The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. Keeping this in consideration, what happened on Vasco da Gama's voyage? Here, da Gama was turned back by the ruling sultan, who felt offended by the explorer's modest gifts. Subsequently, question is, what was Vasco da Gama's religion? In early March of 1498, da Gama and his crew dropped their anchors in the port of Mozambique, a Muslim city-state that sat on the outskirts of the east coast of Africa and was dominated by Muslim traders. He left Portugal in 1497 and sailed south along the western coast of Africa. The Portuguese were looking for a water route to India. His most significant accomplishment was sailing from Portugal to India in 1497. Vasco da Gama was a successful Portuguese explorer. His discovery of this sea route helped the Portuguese establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia and Africa.Īccordingly, what were Vasco da Gama's achievements? He accomplished what many explorers before him could not do. Vasco De Gama was the first European to find an ocean trading route to India.

What did vasco da gama discover