Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea

Rounding Africa to reach Calicut, da Gama opened a direct sea route from Europe to Asia, guided part-way by the pilot Ahmad ibn Mājid.

Why it matters

Ocean shipping undercut overland caravan economics and shifted world trade from the Mediterranean and Silk Road networks to the Atlantic. The Indian Ocean's old, plural trading world faced a new kind of armed monopoly.

People

Vasco da Gama · Ahmad ibn Mājid

Related events

• 1492 – 1504

  Columbus reaches the Americas

  Seeking a western route to Asia, Columbus's four voyages connected two human worlds that had been separate for over ten millennia.

  Exploration

• c. 130 BCE – 1453

  The Silk Road opens

  After Zhang Qian's missions to Central Asia, caravan routes linked Chang'an to the Mediterranean, moving silk, horses, faiths, technologies and plagues.

  Economics

• 1324

  Mansa Musa's hajj puts Mali on the map

  The Mali emperor's pilgrimage to Mecca, with a caravan of gold and followers, was so lavish that it depressed gold prices in Egypt for years.

  Economics · africa

Sources

• Encyclopædia Britannica — Vasco da Gama