Battle of Diu -- Portugal Dominates the Indian Ocean
The Battle of Diu (3 February 1509) was the decisive naval engagement that established Portuguese dominance over the Indian Ocean trade for the next century. Francisco de Almeida, the Portuguese Viceroy of India, destroyed a joint Ottoman-Mamluk-Gujarati fleet off the port of Diu on India's northwest coast. The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire had formed an alliance specifically to expel the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean, recognising that Portuguese control of the Cape Route threatened their stranglehold on the spice trade through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Portugal's victory secured its Estado da India network and its monopoly on the Cape Route to Asia. The Ottomans would try again with a larger fleet in 1538 (Second Battle of Diu), also failing.
- Year: 1509 CE
- Category: Military
