Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

by Roger Crowley

It had been Albuquerque’s genius to understand the strategic importance of Goa, on the fault line between the two warring powers and a better commercial hub than Calicut or Cochin could ever be. Crucially he now controlled the Persian horse trade; ships bringing the animals from Ormuz were funneled into Goa by his warships, where the merchants and their valuable cargo were extremely well provided for. A thousand horses a year passed through the island; the profits for the crown were huge—between 300 and 500 percent. Albuquerque himself was the first European since Alexander the Great to establish an imperial presence in Asia. With his long white beard and his frightening demeanor, he was regarded across the Indian Ocean with superstitious awe. Along the Malabar Coast, they named a local fish afonso-de-albuquerque after him, and used it in magic spells. His Bengali enemies cursed him as the Great Dog of India. He turned his fierce intelligence to the interlocking commercial and imperial contests of the ocean—Hindus and Muslims, Shias and Sunnis, Mamluks and Persians, Vijayanagar and Bijapur, Ormuz and Cambay,