Vasco Da Gama : Exploration

Vasco da Gama was born in Sines, the south west coast of Portugal. He was alive from 1460-1524 living a very good life when we wasn’t exploring because of the tax money he received from his father being a famous explorer. His father, Estêvão da Gama tried to explore the same route that his son would become famous for, but died before he could finish.
Vasco Da Gama discovered the route from Europe to India. He was a naval commander and had a very hard personality; his crew had a lot of difficulties when he would stop in Africa because the Muslim traders did not want anything to do with the trade routes from Europe. When he got into India the natives were very hostile and ordered Da Gama to leave all his goods and set sail to go home. Da Gama did not comply, he took his goods and also took Indian hostages and left to go home. He returned as a hero in Portugal, when the king heard of Da Gama’s struggle with India. The king ordered Da Gama to return to India with 20 armed ships, once he got there he brutally killed the Indian Muslims to show his power and force. He returned home to the fact that King Manuel had died and the new King John III wanted Da Gama to be a representative of the king in India and be a new leader to control the trade routes from India to Europe.
Obviously Portugal benefitted from the new trade route and expansion because of Da Gama’s achievements. The Muslims that lived in India were very affected because now they were slaves to the Portuguese. He is viewed today as a great explorer in Portugal, because of the wealth he brought. Geography influenced his journey because no one wanted anything to do with Africa during this voyage and Africa just caused more hardships for his journey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama#Calicut.2C_India
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/d/dagama.shtml
http://www.angelfire.com/ak/militaryorders/vascogama.html