West African castle of S�o Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast (now Ghana). They were accompanied to the Cape Verde Islands by another ship commanded by Bartolomeu Dias, the Portuguese navigator who had discovered the Cape of Good Hope a few years earlier and who was en route to the According to one version, the appointment was first offered to his eldest brother Paulo, who declined because of ill health.ĭa Gama sailed from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four vessels-two medium-sized three-masted sailing ships, each of about 120 tons, named the Who ascended the throne in 1495, or whether it was King Manuel who first chose him, remains unclear.

Accounts of his appointment differ whether he was chosen by King John and this choice confirmed by King Manuel, Est�v�o da Gama was chosen to lead the expedition, but after his death Vasco took his place. In accordance with the policy of Prince Henry the Navigator, King John was planning to send a Portuguese fleet to India to open the sea route to Asia and to outflank the Muslims, who had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of trade with India and other eastern South of Lisbon, and to the Algarve, Portugal's southernmost province, to seize French ships in retaliation for French peacetime depredations against Portuguese shipping-a task that Vasco rapidly and effectively performed. In 1492 King John II of Portugal sent him to the port of Set�bal, Little is known of his early life he may have studied at the inland town of �vora-somewhere he learned mathematics and navigation. He third son of Est�v�o da Gama, a nobleman who was commander of the fortress of Sines on the coast of Alentejo province in southwestern Portugal, Vasco He also helped make Portugal a world power. Way of the Cape of Good Hope and thus ushered in a new era in world history. 24, 1524, Cochin, India), Portuguese navigator whose voyages to India (1497-99, 1502-03, 1524) opened up the sea route from western Europe to the East by Women: The Shadow Story of the Millennium Land, Two if by Sea, Three if by Rollerblade.

What did vasco da gama