Vasco da Gama Reaches Calicut
On 20 May 1498 Vasco da Gama's fleet of four vessels anchored off Calicut (Kozhikode) on the Malabar coast of India, completing the first direct sea voyage from Europe to Asia. The Portuguese encountered a sophisticated commercial society little impressed by their trade goods, and da Gama's meetings with the Zamorin of Calicut were largely unsuccessful commercially. Nevertheless the voyage proved the feasibility of a direct oceanic route to the spice trade, bypassing all overland intermediaries, and inaugurated a century of Portuguese dominance in the Indian Ocean.
- Year: 1498 CE
- Category: Political
