ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an account of how the Portuguese came to India, and why it was that they developed an empire there. Cabral’s voyage (with 13 ships, 1,500 soldiers and sailors, and some Franciscan missionaries) was a much larger enterprise than da Gama’s. He had orders to establish factories at Sofala and Calicut. The voyage lasted from March 1500 until July 1501, during which he famously ‘discovered’ Brazil and, as has been mentioned, burnt Calicut. As a result of the voyage the Portuguese decided that in future they would pursue their objectives in the Indies by force rather than by peaceful means. The Mamluk challenge to the Portuguese in India was broken when Francisco de Almeida destroyed the Mamluk fleet at Diu in 1509. Thereafter, under Afonso de Albuquerque, the individual most responsible for laying the foundations of Portugal’s maritime empire in Asia, the Portuguese acquired Goa (1510), Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1514).
