Vasco da Gama facts for kids

Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama (1469 or 1469-December 24, 1524) was a Portuguese sailor. He was the first European who went to India through the Cape of Good Hope, the southern end of Africa. He went to India three times by ship.

He was born in Sines, Portugal. His exact date of birth is unknown. According to some people's accounts, he was a knight in the 1490s in Sines.

On the 4th of July 1497 he left Lisbon with four ships: the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, the Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name. He intended that his ships sail to India. No European explorer before him had sailed further than the place that is now called South Africa. Vasco da Gama sailed around the bottom of the African continent. Da Gama's crew gave the South African coast they were passing the name Natal, a word which means "Christmas" in Portuguese.

They did this because they sailed near to that coast at the same time they celebrated Christmas. The coast they named is still called Natal. By January, Da Gama's crew had reached modern-day Mozambique, on the East African coast. Mozambique was controlled by Arabs because it was part of the Indian Ocean's network of trade. An angry crowd discovered that da Gama's men were not Muslims, so the crew continued north to Kenya. There, at Malindi, da Gama hired a pilot from India.

The pilot brought the Portuguese men to the city of Calicut on the southwest coast of India on May 20, 1498. Vasco da Gama was in danger because of a conflict with the ruler of Calicut. However, he escaped and returned to Portugal in September 1499. A few of his Portuguese sailors stayed in Calicut.

Vasco da Gama went on his next trip in 1502. He found out that the people of Calicut killed the Portuguese he had left behind. During this trip, he attacked and stole from all the Arab and Indian ships he found in the Indian Ocean. Then, he went on to Calicut and took over that city, capturing much wealth. This made the King of Portugal very happy with him.

Vasco da Gama went on one last trip in 1524, to be the viceroy (governor) of Calicut, which was now a Portuguese colony. He died soon after he got there on Christmas Eve.

Images for kids

Statue of Vasco da Gama at his birthplace, Sines, Portugal
Vasco Da Gama
Vasco da Gama leaving the port of Lisbon, Portugal
Monument to the Cross of Vasco da Gama at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
Pillar of Vasco da Gama in Malindi, erected on the return journey
Vasco Da Gama landing at Calicut
A steel engraving from the 1850s, with modern hand coloring. It shows the meeting of Vasco da Gama with Zamorin.
Landmark in Kappad, near Calicut
Outward and return voyages of the Portuguese India Run (Carreira da Índia). The outward route of the South Atlantic westerlies that Bartolomeu Dias discovered in 1487, followed and explored by da Gama in the open ocean, would be developed in subsequent years.
Malabar Coast of India, c.1500, showing the path of Vasco da Gama's 4th India Armada in 1502
A depiction of da Gama's fleet (from the Livro das Armadas)
An aged Vasco da Gama, as Viceroy of India and Count of Vidigueira (from Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu)
Gama's former tomb in St. Francis Church, Kochi
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Tomb of Vasco da Gama in the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, Lisbon
Portrait of Vasco da Gama by António Manuel da Fonseca (1838)
Cenotaph to Vasco da Gama in the Church of Santa Engrácia