Portuguese Colonization History - General Knowledge of Modern India
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover a direct sea route to India. On 20 May 1498, the Portuguese navigator Vasco-da-Gama reached Calicut, an important sea port located in south-west India. The local king Zamorin welcomed him and granted him some privileges. After three months in India, Vasco-da-Gama returned with a ship loaded with luggage and sold the goods in the European market for sixty times the total cost of his journey.
In 1501 AD, Vasco-da-Gama came to India again for the second time and established a trading factory in Cannanore. After the establishment of trade relations, Calicut, Cannanore and Cochin emerged as major Portuguese centers in India. The Arab traders became jealous of the Portuguese's success and progress, and this jealousy gave rise to enmity between the local king Zamorin and the Portuguese. This enmity increased so much that a situation of military conflict arose between them. King Zamorin was defeated by the Portuguese and with this victory the military supremacy of the Portuguese was established.
Rise of Portuguese Power in India
In 1505, Francisco de Almeida was made the first Portuguese governor of India. His policies were called the 'Blue Water Policy' because their main objective was to control the Indian Ocean. In 1509, Francisco de Almeida was replaced by Albuquerque as the Portuguese governor in India, who in 1510 took over Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur. He is considered the real founder of Portuguese power in India. Later Goa became the headquarters of Portuguese settlements in India. By the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese had not only captured Goa, Daman, Diu and Salsette, but also vast areas along the Indian coast. also took it under his influence.
Fall Of Portuguese Power
Portuguese power in India could not last long as new European trading rivals posed a challenge to them. In the struggle between various trading rivals, the Portuguese had to surrender to their more powerful and commercially more capable rivals and gradually they were confined to limited areas.
Main Reasons For The Decline Of Portuguese Power
- Portugal as a country was so small that it could not bear the burden of a trading colony located far away from its country.
- Their fame as pirates created a sense of enmity against them in the minds of the local rulers.
- The rigid religious policy of the Portuguese distanced them from both the Hindus and the Muslims of India.
- Apart from this, the arrival of Dutch and British in India also contributed to the decline of Portuguese.
- Ironically, the Portuguese power, which was the first European power to come to India, was also the last European power to return from India in 1961, when the Indian government annexed Goa, Daman and Diu from them.
Portuguese Gift To India
- He introduced tobacco cultivation in India.
- He spread Catholicism to the west and east coast of India.
- He established India's first printing press in Goa in 1556 AD. The Indian Medicinal Plants was the first scientific work which was published from Goa in 1563 AD.
- First of all, through the Carthage system, he told how to establish supremacy over the sea and maritime trade. Under this system, if any ship passes through Portuguese territory, it will have to get a permit from the Portuguese, otherwise they can be caught.
- He was the first European to propagate Christianity in India and Asia.
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Modern India