Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here,
when kids learn about the so called Age of Discovery,
the fifteenth and sixteenth century maritime exploits of Spain and Portugal,
mainly they memorize a list of a half dozen European
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men in funny hats who sailed bravely into uncharted waters
to discover far off lands. Among them is Vasco da Gama,
a Portuguese explorer who was the first European to sail
to spice rich India by rounding the southern tip of Africa. But,
like his contemporary Christopher Columbus, de Gama is a complex
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and controversial historical figure. A devout Christian and loyal Portuguese subject,
the Gama had no qualms about using violence, including against
unarmed civilians, to force his way into the lucrative Indian
and African trade routes dominate at the time by Arab
Muslims and the Ottoman Empire. For the article this episode
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is based on haw Stuff Work, spoke with Sanjay Subrahmanyam,
a history professor at e CLA who wrote an eye
opening book about de Gama. He explained that Degama left
almost no personal writing or journals compared to the prolific Columbus,
but that scraps of letters and journal entries penned by
de Gama's crew paint a and I quote troubling picture
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of an ill tempered, even dangerous character. He said. The
accounts written by people on da Gama's voyages portray someone
who was, even by the standards of the time, a
violent personality. In the fourteen hundreds, the Spanish and Portuguese
were in a bitter race to find a sea route
to India that bypassed the tortuously long and expensive overland
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trade route grew unfriendly Ottoman and Egyptian territory. In fourteen
eighty eight, the Portuguese took the lead when Bartolomew Diaz
successfully nap negated around the Cape of Good Hope. Diaz
called it the Cape of Storms in modern day South Africa,
and became the first European to reach the Indian Ocean
by water. But Diaz returned to Portugal with bad news.
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The winds and currents in the Indian Ocean blew northeast
to southwest, making it all but impossible to cross the
sea from Africa to India. What DEAs didn't understand was
how the seasonal monsoons of the region were and that
the winds actually switched directions for half the year. Thinking
it was hopeless, Portugal didn't attempt another southern run to
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India for a decade. In the meantime, Columbus, who learned
his trade in Portugal, discovered what he believed to be
a western route to the Indies or possibly Japan for Spain.
In fourteen ninety two. For the Portuguese, the pressure was on,
and King Manuel the First ordered a new expedition to
India via the South African route and put Vaskodagama in command.
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Historians know little of de Gama's early life, just that
he was born sometime in the fourteen sixties in a
small coastal city of Scenes to a knight and a noblewoman,
which afforded him a good education in navigation and advanced mathematics.
At some point he gained practical experience on ships and
may have become a captain as early as twenty years
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of age. He proved a loyal enforcer when he was
sent to put an end to a conflict between Portuguese
and French merchants, and by his thirties was considered a
guy who got stuff done. On July eighth, fourteen ninety seven,
Degama set sail from Lisbon with four ships and one
hundred and seventy men, including his brother Paolo. There was
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nothing easy about navigating fifteenth century sailboats through unruly seas,
but Degama wisely took the advice of Diaz and swung
far west into the Southern Atlantic, only six hundred miles
or about one thousand kilometers off of Brazil, in order
to catch strong winds that would propel them eastward toward
the tip of Africa. This risky plan worked, and after
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thirteen long weeks on the open water, out of sight
of land, Dagama landed just north of the Cape of
Good Hope on November seventh, nearly four months after leaving Portugal.
The expedition slowly worked its way around the stormy cape
and entered the Indian Ocean around Christmas time. But now
came the real test, figuring out how to cross the
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sea to India. For that, he needed a knowledgeable local captain,
who he hoped to recruit or kidnap from eastern Africa.
Dagama's first major encounter with an African kingdom was in Mozambique,
where he was poorly received, an experience that would be
repeated throughout his first voyage. Dagama was following the example
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of Columbus, who had won over native leaders with simple
European goods like bells, flannel, and metalwork. For the article
this episode, it is based on how Stuff Works, also
spoke with Mark Nukupp, a historian and museum manager in
Hanover County, Virginia. He said, but when Dagama stopped at
ports in Eastern Africa and offered these items for trade,
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people would laugh at him. These weren't impressive to local traders.
In Mozambique, the sultan and his people were actually offended
and started to riot. Dagama fled back to a ship
and lobbed a few cannonballs at the city as parting shops.
They were better received in the African kingdom of Malindi,
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where Dagama was able to recruit a local pilot who
could guide them across the tricky Indian Ocean. After a
twenty seven day journey, Dagama and his men arrived in Calicut,
a coastal city in southern India known today as Krikota. There,
the Portuguese were shocked to find that Muslims were running
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the spice trade in India. Subramanyam said they were under
the impression that there were a lot of Christians in
India and that these people would be their natural allies. Instead,
Dagama found outposts of an extensive African Indian trade network,
operated largely by Arab Muslims, and again there nobody was
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impressed with the poultry goods the Portuguese had brought to
trade for high end spices. The local traders and merchants
made it clear that gold was the only currency that mattered.
After a torturous journey home against the monsoon wins, Dagama
returned to Lisbon nearly empty handed, but he was still
greeted as a hero for reaching his destination at all
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and making it home again after two years and twenty
four thousand miles at sea about thirty eight thousand kilometers,
a sadly scurvy had claimed all but fifty four of
his one hundred and seventy man crew, including his brother.
Before Degama returned to India, another Portuguese explorer named Pedro Alaves,
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Cabral was given command of an Indian expedition. A Cabral
sailed with a much larger crew of one thousand, two
hundred men and thirteen vessels, including one captain by Diaz.
Following the Gama's route, Cabral swung far west, but he
ended up going farther than intended and accidentally found what's
now Brazil, which he claimed for the Portuguese. Cabral eventually
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continued onto India, encountering terrible storms that claimed four of
his ships, including the one captain by Diaz. When he
finally arrived in Calicut, he met fierce resistance from the
Arab Muslim traders, who killed some Portuguese sailors in an attack.
Cabral responded by bombarding the city, raiding ten Arab ships,
and killing an estimated six hundred people. It was a
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quote unquote diplomatic style that Dagama would follow to terrible effect.
In fifteen oh two, Dagama set sail again for India
in command of ten ships, with his sights set on
breaking the Muslim monopoly on the spice trade once and
for all. On his way, he threatened African leaders with
its cannons in exchange for vows of loyalty to Portugal,
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and then waged campaign of terror along India's Malabar coast.
In perhaps the most horrific incident, Dagama intercepted a ship
carrying Muslim families returning from a religious pilgrimage to Mecca
in modern day Saudi Arabia. Dagama locked up the hundreds
of passengers in the ship's hull, and, despite pleas from
his own crew members not to do it, set the
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pilgrim ship ablaze, killing all of them. Subrahmanyam said maybe
he was trying to create an image for the Portuguese
you don't mess with us, and that message did come across.
The Pilgrimship. Incident cemented the reputation of the Portuguese as
very dangerous and violent people in the Indian Ocean. In Calicut,
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there were more skirmishes between Dagama and Arab traders. Dagama
responded by killing thirty unarmed local fishermen, dismembering their bodies
and letting the remains wash in on the tide. The
combined cruelties of Cabral and Dagama succeeded in establishing Portuguese
trading outposts in Calicut and in the southern Indian state
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of Goa, where the Portuguese ruled until nineteen sixty one.
Dagama had married after his first voyage and fathered six
sons and one daughter. He spent twenty years as an
adviser on Indian affairs to the Portuguese king. In fifteen
twenty four, he was sent back to Goa as viceroy
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to deal with some corruption in the government the Portuguese
had established there. He soon became ill and died that
same year. In India, Subrami Yam explained that one of
the main reasons why Degama's name rings down through the
centuries is because the Portuguese needed a national hero to
rival Columbus. He said, the Spaniards made a big deal
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of Columbus, and the Portuguese were very annoyed by that.
The Portuguese made a very deliberate attempt in the sixteenth
century to build up de Gama as their Columbus. This
included a twelve part epic poem called The Discovery of India,
written by the famed sixteenth century Portuguese poet Luis vas
d Kamois. It portrays Degama as a Greek style hero,
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rivaling not only Columbus, but Achilles and Odysseus. Reconciling that
kind of propaganda with the reality of de Gama's ruthless
cruelty is part of the work that we all have
to do in considering how European exploration and colonization has
shaped our world. Newcup said, was he a great explorer? No?
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But through his efforts, Portugal established a European sea route
to India and eventually further to China and the Indies,
and helped create what would become the Portuguese Overseas Empire.
Whether that's progress or not is up for debate. Today's
episode is based on the article Basco de Gama Portugal's
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Columbus is just as controversial on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written
by Julia Layton. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart
Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is
produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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