Vasco da Gama

Da Gama was a Portuguese mariner and nobleman born around the 1460s. Sailors had spent decades trying to reach the Indies, losing thousands of lives and dozens of ships to wrecks and attacks. In 1497 he led the voyage that finally did it, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and sailing from Malindi to Kozhikode, where he landed on 20 May 1498. The route sidestepped the contested Mediterranean and the dangerous Arabian Peninsula; the outward and return legs were the longest ocean voyages ever completed at the time. Portugal seized a commercial monopoly on pepper, cinnamon, and the rest of the spice trade for decades - no other European power could challenge it for a century. Da Gama commanded two of the Portuguese India Armadas, the first and the fourth, the latter departing three years after his return. In 1519 he was ennobled Count of Vidigueira; in 1524 he was appointed Viceroy and Governor of India. He died that December, leaving a route that became the backbone of a colonial empire stretching from Africa to Asia.