Afonso de Albuquerque
Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman (1453-1515) · Portugal · Politicians · Died at 62
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Something wrong?He turned the Indian Ocean into a Portuguese lake. As viceroy from 1509 to 1515, Albuquerque seized Goa, raided the Persian Gulf, sent the first European fleet into the Red Sea, and choked every naval passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific - the strategy that made Portugal the first global empire.
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Coat of arms of Albuquerque
Map of the Arabian Peninsula showing the Red Sea with Socotra island (red) and the Persian Gulf (blue) with the Strait of Hormuz (Cantino planisphere, 1502)
The Fort of Our Lady of the Conception, Hormuz Island, Iran
Statue of Afonso de Albuquerque, symbolically standing on a stack of weapons, referencing his reply in Hormuz
Afonso de Albuquerque as Governor of India
Illustration depicts the aftermath of the Portuguese conquest of Goa, from the forces of Yusuf Adil Shah.In their own words 2
, I then burnt the city and put everything to sword, and for days continuously the people shed blood.
I leave no town or building of the Mussalmans. Those who are taken alive, I order them to be roasted…
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Afonso de Albuquerque
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Born around 1453, Albuquerque rose through Portuguese ranks to command the fleet of the Arabian and Persian sea in 1506. His brilliance showed early: he conquered Goa in 1510, took Malacca in 1511, and pioneered European entry into the Red Sea and Persian Gulf - all to strangle Islam's trade routes, spread Christianity, and corner the spice market. Contemporaries called him "the Terrible" and "the Lion of the Seas" for good reason. His last five years as second governor of Portuguese India shifted to diplomacy and administration: he opened contacts with Ayutthaya, Pegu, Timor, the Moluccas, Ming China, Ethiopia, and Safavid Persia. He died in office on 16 December 1515, having built the scaffolding of a empire that would outlast him by centuries.
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