Portuguese Expansion in the Indian Ocean

Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean accelerated after Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India. The new route connected Portugal directly to an oceanic trading world already served by merchants and states from East Africa, Arabia, India and Southeast Asia. Portuguese expeditions combined commerce and diplomacy with increasingly aggressive attempts to compel ships and ports to accept their presence.

Under King Manuel I, successive fleets established a permanent armed network rather than a large territorial empire. Afonso de Albuquerque became the central architect of this strategy, taking Goa in 1510, Malacca in 1511 and Hormuz in 1515. Control of those ports and choke points was intended to give Portuguese shipping leverage over the routes linking the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Indian subcontinent and the spice-producing regions farther east.

This period is the most specific setting for histories and historical narratives about the first Portuguese Estado da Índia, the voyages of Vasco da Gama and the campaigns of Afonso de Albuquerque. Roger Crowley’s Conquerors examines how a small European kingdom used ships, fortresses, negotiation and extreme violence to insert itself into the commerce of the Indian Ocean.