VASCO DA GAMA

In the 15th century Europeans began to look for sea routes to Asia, hoping to obtain its goods more cheaply than by the ancient land routes. The Portuguese led the way. After winning their independence from Spain in 1385, they began to expand, attacking Muslim North Africa and Muslim fleets at sea. King Joao I appointed his son, Prince Henry, to organize voyages of discovery. In 1444 Henry's sailors reached the Senegal river in West Africa. By 1471, they had reached Ghana. In 1482-84 Diego Cäo's expedition came to the Congo river in Zaire. Bartholomeu Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in 1487-88.

Vasco da Gama (c.1460-1524) was a Portuguese explorer who in 1497-9 led the first expedition to sail from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope, on the southern tip of Africa. After that, he sailed up the east coast of Africa and with the help of an Indian sailor crossed the ocean to Calicut in India. He returned home with a cargo of spices. He returned to India in 1502 and again in 1522.

Most early Portuguese explorers sailed in caravels. They were longer and narrower than previous ships, easier to manoeuvre with a greater spread of sail, and better able to withstand storms. They had large holds capable of carrying the substantial cargoes needed for long voyages. Vasco da Gama's small ships were a development of the caravel and its triangular, lateen sail. They had both square and lateen rigged sails which made them a great deal more manoeuvrable on the open sea.

Portuguese sailors also benefited from improved maps, astrolabes, and navigational training, largely thanks to Prince Henry the Navigator.

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