Conquerors

In 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal around the Cape of Good Hope and opened a direct European sea route to India. Roger Crowley follows the small fleets that came after him as the Portuguese crown tried to turn navigation into political and commercial power across an ocean already linked by established Muslim, Hindu and other trading networks. Under Manuel I, voyages of trade quickly became campaigns of coercion, diplomacy and naval war.

The central figure in the expansion is Afonso de Albuquerque, whose capture of Goa, Malacca and Hormuz helped create the strategic network later known as the Estado da Índia. Rather than conquering the Indian Ocean as territory, the Portuguese sought to dominate key ports, sea lanes and choke points with fortified bases and armed shipping. Crowley shows both the audacity of this rapid expansion and the violence through which a relatively small European kingdom inserted itself into the commerce of Africa and Asia.