The impact of Vasco da Gama on India

There was a huge demand for luxury Asian goods in India, that would lead Europeans to trade along the Indian Ocean for Indian spices and goods. Because of this, an economy was revolved around trading, known as a mercantilist economy, where European nations would have rivalries in order to obtain silver in the Americas. This would then lead to European countries trying to thrive in the Indian Ocean with joint stock companies and trading posts in order to control the area and help out their economy.

There, the Spanish used the labor force of natives and spurred the circulation of silver. At the same time, Europeans began making overseas voyages to Asia, driven by the journey of Portuguese sailor Vasco de Gama, who became the first European to reach India overseas. This officially linked Asia and Europe through overseas routes, which became

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, European exploration and expansion thrived. Portugal led the way in this movement of exploration with their development of efficiently built ships known as caravels, seafaring devices such as compasses and astrolabes, and cutting-edge naval academies. Various European countries, including Spain, England, France, etc., followed Portugal’s example by utilizing their progressive naval technology. These technological advancements led to the crossing of oceans and eventually the circumnavigation of the world. These Portuguese sailing techniques were implemented by explorers such as Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Hernando Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, and Bernal Castillo allowing them to travel by sea to places such as Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas. These nations and explorers were persuaded to put in the time and effort to complete these complex expeditions by three essential motivations. Financial gain, political dignity, and religious expansion were fundamental motivators for the European Age of Exploration.

Portugal was one of the, if not the only, technological and economic geniuses of the fifteenth century. As a result of their genius, Portugal was able to build one of the first caravels and sail around the coast of Africa in an attempt to find a sea route to India. As a result of this attempt,

Production of silver and spices varied significantly as silver was mined while spices were grown. Silver was mined almost exclusively in the Western Hemisphere. Silver mining required many hands and slaves were transported to the Americas just to work in silver mines. In contrast, spices were grown and cultivated mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. The location of where the spice was cultivated differed with each spice. Salt was cultivated on the Mediterranean or Southern Europe, while pepper and nutmeg were cultivated further east, pepper predominantly in India and nutmeg in Indonesia. The spices were grown by local farmers, who then handed them off to merchants.The merchants spread the spices across Europe and Asia, blending each spice in multiple cultures. Silver and spices originated in very different places. Silver objects have been dated from before 4,000 B.C. in Greece and are even mentioned in the Book of Genesis, but the silver trade took off after the discovery of Silver in the Americas. Salt was originally discovered well before the common era around 4,500 B.C, by following animals around, who eventually led the humans to locations of salt. Salt was located on or near seashores, and most of the salt coming from seashores off the Mediterranean Sea. Pepper originated from Southeast India and is over 4,000 years old. The Indians first used it for cooking around 2,000 BC and even before and it quickly made its way across Asia and even down to the Nile in Egypt. Nutmeg was found in Indonesia, specifically the Banda Islands, but the date of discovery is unknown. The Banda Islands, also known as the Spice Islands, were the location of origin of many spices and was the only location of Nutmeg around the world.

They were able to fill over four thousand packets of just pepper alone. Also the improved trade routes led to shorter journeys. It took only fourteen and a half months for the journey to India for spices, but this was a financial letter sent to the Fugger Bank of Augsburg, so it was only focused on the positives. Although as shown in Doc 4, the new trade routes led to wars over goods and raw materials, because the countries wanted to make as much money as possible, and thanks to mercantilism that was possible. Mercantilism was were countries would try to decrease imports and increase exports, therefore leading to an increased economy.

Although Vasco da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa in 1488 to find a trade route to India, he was also looking for other Christian kings and spices. Da Gama was known as “captain-major” to his crew-mates, and he was an ambassador for Prince Henry. When he landed in India, he gave two letters to the king of Calicut. In a cultural misunderstanding, Vasco da Gama tried to give gifts to the king that were laughed at because the poorest merchant would give gifts better than the gift that da Gama gave. Although Vasco da Gama gave the wrong gift to the king, he still

The main motivation of European exploration was economic motives. People were beginning to become more interested in traveling by sea to reach Asia and Africa and all their riches(Duiker,494). The spice trade was what linked Europe to Asia, and the gold trade linked Europe to Africa. Furthermore, in the 15th and 16th centuries, as the economy and purchasing power of Europe developed and increased, the spice demand grew at a steady rate(Arnold,12). Therefore, spices were one of the few things that made overseas trade possible. Europe did not have very much gold to begin with, so ultimately the gold mines that they did possess were emptied. After 1400, Europe started trading with the areas that produced gold, increasing their amount of gold. Gold was very important to Europe, because not only was it used for decorations, but also their currency. In 1500, Portugal was controlling the flow of gold to Europe, making Portugal much wealthier(Buckler,500). Eventually, slaves were included in the gold

- Because Spain and Portugal were rivals, they were always trying to out beat each other. Since the Portuguese set up trading posts in Africa first, other European countries started and later on Spain set up posts too. Because the Portuguese didn’t like taking water routes, it took them longer to get to India through land to get spices and jewels. While this was happening, the Spanish people became unified and seeing that they were now stronger, planned to outstrip their rivals of the Indian

In his text/lecture “spices”, textbook argues that in 1499 Vasco De Gama reached the port of Calicut, on the Southwestern coast of India. It states that Gama and his crew were amazed and surprised by all the spices, including the rare silks and precious gems. Spices was a valuable thing because it brought different taste and spiced things up. There were all types of spices as ginger, cinnamon, and other Indian spices. The Portuguese filled their ships with spice’s.

The time period that Christopher Columbus lived in was the late 1400s early 1500s. The technology wasn’t very up to speed. They didn’t have much things but they started understanding how the world was at that time. At that time, spice was in very high demand by the people of Europe and who ever traveled in a ship to India or another Asian country

This essay is analysis essay to the excerpt from a journal “The Journal of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama” written by an anonymous during the early modern period, translated and edited by E. G. Ravenstein and published by the Hakluyt Society in 1989. The article is primary source of travel journal by sea of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, from Africa to India in 1497-1498, the era of European commercial and imperial expansion. The article written by anonymous who was an eyewitness that participated in the voyage of Vasco da Gama to seeks new sea route from Portugues to India.This essay will summarize and analyze

Europeans sought to explore lands outside of Europe in order to alleviate a trade deficit and to spread Christianity around the world. During the 15th century spices became extremely popular and were highly sought after during the trading process. The spices were used for flavoring food, making perfume, embalming the dead, preserving meat and added to salve recipes in traditional medicine. Europeans began to view these goods as necessary and would trade for them. However, because these goods were shipped from so far away they were rather expensive. Europeans did not have enough items to trade so they began using gold to pay for the goods resulting in the gold supply drastically reducing. Naturally, a depression occurred within Europe

During the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, many people from European countries sailed across the Atlantic ocean in search of gold, spices, and other valuable materials. The value of these materials increased drastically when they were gathered straight from the source; this factor influenced many prominent explorers to seek out and bring back these goods on their own for personal gain. Examples of prominent explorers consist of Christopher Columbus of Spain, Vasco da Gama of Portugal who sailed in order to obtain spices, silk, and porcelain as well as wanting to spread Catholicism, and Walter Raleigh from England who explored purely for treasure. When exploring, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama approached the indigenous people in a similar manner. They viewed the natives as conquerable and considered them to live in a simple society. Walter Raleigh addressed the indigenous people differently, however, rather than seeing them as inferior to him and his countrymen, he approached them with a neutral mindset and was often respectful in regards to their differing beliefs. The contrast in how Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama approach the native people in relation to Walter Raleigh is solely dependent on religion and how the spread of Catholicism was Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama’s main focus when on their exploration.

Before the age of exploration, spices changed hands many times on their way to Europe-