Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

by Roger Crowley

King João I, “John the Bastard,” founder of the ruling house of Aviz, had snatched the country’s crown in 1385 and asserted the country’s independence from neighboring Castile.

The Vasco da Gama era of history set in motion five hundred years of Western expansion and the forces of globalization that now shape the world.

The Portuguese had expelled the Arabs from their territory far earlier than their neighbors in Castile and established a precocious sense of national identity, but the appetite for holy war remained undimmed.

“The Portuguese had expelled the Arabs from their territory far earlier than their neighbors in Castile and established a precocious sense of national identity, but the appetite for holy war remained undimmed.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 1 The India Plan, p 6 of 351, 3%.

Behind the Africa initiative lay a very old dream of militant Christendom: that of outflanking Islam, which blocked the way to Jerusalem and the wealth of the East.

“Behind the Africa initiative lay a very old dream of militant Christendom: that of outflanking Islam, which blocked the way to Jerusalem and the wealth of the East.”

Toscanelli had proposed “a sea route from here to India, the land of spices; a route which is shorter than that via Guinea.” His reasoning was that because the world was spherical, it was possible to reach the Indies by sailing in either direction, and that it was a shorter voyage to sail west. Apart from the as yet invisible barrier of the Americas, Toscanelli had made a fundamental error: he had under-calculated the circumference of the earth. But the letter and the map were destined to become a potent ingredient in the accelerating race for the world that gripped the Iberian Peninsula in the final decades of the century.

Lucena went on to quote Psalm 72: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” The river was the Jordan; it might just as well have stood for the Tejo in João’s increasingly global vision.

No more poignant memorial to Cão’s attempts exists than that at the Yellala Falls, up the Congo River. Whoever came here sailed or rowed a hundred miles upstream from the sea, past mangrove swamps and densely forested riverbanks. As they progressed, the current increased in ferocity until they reached a rocky gorge and thunderous waterfalls, a colossal torrent of water pouring out of the heart of Africa. When they could sail no farther, they abandoned their ships and scrambled ten miles over the rocks in the hope of finding navigable water upstream, but the succession of rapids defeated them. On the face of an overhanging cliff high above the crashing torrent, they left a carving, a monument of a different sort. The coat of arms of King João, a cross, and some words:

The Europeans of the Middle Ages had less contact with the Orient than had the Roman Empire.

“The Europeans of the Middle Ages had less contact with the Orient than had the Roman Empire.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 15 of 351, 6%.

In October 1486, soon after Cão’s return—or the return of his ships—João appointed a knight of his household, Bartolomeu Dias, to command the next expedition down the African coast.

“In October 1486, soon after Cão’s return—or the return of his ships—João appointed a knight of his household, Bartolomeu Dias, to command the next expedition down the African coast.”

This little flotilla sailed out of the Tejo sometime in late July or early August 1487. It was to prove one of the most significant expeditions in the history of exploration, but also one of the most mysterious.

If the exact details of Dias’s sailing instructions are lost, their substance can be reconstructed: first, to push south beyond Cão’s last marker in pursuit of the elusive Prassus Promontory, the definitive

For several more days the two caravels plugged past a desolate coast of low hills. Then the pilots took a startling decision. At about twenty-nine degrees south, they gave up the attritional battle with the adverse winds and currents. Instead they turned their ships away from the shore, lowered their sails to half-mast, and flung themselves out into the void of the westerly ocean with the counterintuitive aim of sailing east. No one knows exactly why this happened; it may have been a maneuver worked out in advance, or it may have been a moment of genius, an intuition about the Atlantic winds based on previous experience of sailing home from the Guinea coast. This involved a tack to the west away from the African coast, taking the ships out in a wide loop into the central Atlantic, where they picked up westerly winds that carried them east back to Portugal. Maybe, they reasoned, the same rhythm applied in the southern Atlantic. Whatever the logic, this was a decisive moment in the history of the world.

“For several more days the two caravels plugged past a desolate coast of low hills. Then the pilots took a startling decision. At about twenty-nine degrees south, they gave up the attritional battle with the adverse winds and currents. Instead they turned their ships away from the shore, lowered their sails to half-mast, and flung themselves out into the void of the westerly ocean with the counterintuitive aim of sailing east. No one knows exactly why this happened; it may have been a maneuver worked out in advance, or it may have been a moment of genius, an intuition about the Atlantic winds based on previous experience of sailing home from the Guinea coast. This involved a tack to the west away from the African coast, taking the ships out in a wide loop into the central Atlantic, where they picked up westerly winds that carried them east back to Portugal. Maybe, they reasoned, the same rhythm applied in the southern Atlantic. Whatever the logic, this was a decisive moment in the history of the world.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 19 of 351, 7%.

Sometime toward the end of January, they spied high mountains; on February 3, 1488, they came ashore at a point they christened the Bay of the Cowherds. They had been on the open sea for nearly four weeks; their great loop had carried them past both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas—the Cape of the Needles—Africa’s southernmost point, where the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans meet.

“Sometime toward the end of January, they spied high mountains; on February 3, 1488, they came ashore at a point they christened the Bay of the Cowherds. They had been on the open sea for nearly four weeks; their great loop had carried them past both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas—the Cape of the Needles—Africa’s southernmost point, where the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans meet.”

On March 12, they reached a bay, where they planted their last pillar; at this moment the exhausted crews “with one voice began to murmur, and asked that they should not proceed further, saying that the supplies were being exhausted [and] that they needed to get back to the store ship, which they left behind with provisions, which was now so distant they would all be dead by the time they got there.” Dias wanted to go on but was bound by his sailing instructions to consult with the other officers on matters of importance. They agreed to continue for just three more days; when they came to a river, which they christened the Rio Infante, they turned about. It seems clear that Dias was disappointed, but he abided by the democratic decision.

Turning his ships east now to sail home, Dias caught sight of the Cape of Good Hope for the first time. It was a historic moment: this definitive proof of the end of Africa demolished forever a tenet of Ptolemy’s geography. According to Barros, Dias and his companions named it the Stormy Cape, which King João changed to the Cape of Good Hope, “because it promised the discovery of India, so long desired and sought for over so many years.” Dias left the Cape with a good stern wind.

The battered caravels reentered the Tejo in December 1488. Dias had been away sixteen months, discovered 1,260 miles of new coast, and rounded Africa for the first time.

“The battered caravels reentered the Tejo in December 1488. Dias had been away sixteen months, discovered 1,260 miles of new coast, and rounded Africa for the first time.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 23 of 351, 8%.

Dias had achieved two major breakthroughs. He had shown definitively that Africa was a continent with a seaway to India, abolishing some of the precepts of Ptolemy’s geography; and by his inspirational swing out to sea, he had unlocked the final part of the riddle of the winds and suggested the way to get there—not by slogging down the African coast but by arcing out into the empty Atlantic in a widening loop and trusting to the reliable westerlies to carry ships around the continent’s tip. It was the culmination of sixty years of effort by Portuguese sailors, but it is not clear that the achievement was apparent to the men to whom Dias told his tale.

“Dias had achieved two major breakthroughs. He had shown definitively that Africa was a continent with a seaway to India, abolishing some of the precepts of Ptolemy’s geography; and by his inspirational swing out to sea, he had unlocked the final part of the riddle of the winds and suggested the way to get there—not by slogging down the African coast but by arcing out into the empty Atlantic in a widening loop and trusting to the reliable westerlies to carry ships around the continent’s tip. It was the culmination of sixty years of effort by Portuguese sailors, but it is not clear that the achievement was apparent to the men to whom Dias told his tale.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 23 of 351, 8%.

It would be another nine years before the value of Dias’s voyage would become manifest. As for Columbus, he sensed that João’s interest had died. He returned to lobbying the Spanish court.

“It would be another nine years before the value of Dias’s voyage would become manifest. As for Columbus, he sensed that João’s interest had died. He returned to lobbying the Spanish court.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 24 of 351, 8%.

Here he became the first Portuguese to meet the man they knew as Prester John, the Christian emperor of Ethiopia.

Dias and Covilhã between them had effectively joined up the dots on a possible sea route to the Indies. The India plan was complete, though it is not clear when or even if Covilhã’s report reached the king, nor what the silence surrounding Dias’s achievement meant in court circles.

It is unclear if Columbus, an unreliable fabulist who reinvented his own past, was blown accidentally into the Tejo by a violent storm or if this visit was intended as a calculated snub to the king who had refused him. The man waiting to interview him was Bartolomeu Dias, whose voyage had scuppered Columbus’s chances of Portuguese patronage.

In appearance they were not African; they seemed more like what he imagined the people of the Indies to be, but no one could be certain exactly what the self-promoting Genoese had found. The king’s advisers had a simple solution: kill him discreetly and the Spanish discoveries would die. João ruled it out; it was both morally wrong and bad diplomacy, at a time when relations between the two monarchies were already strained.

In 1479, to end an earlier war, the two monarchies had agreed to draw a horizontal frontier through the Atlantic Ocean, ratified by the pope, that defined areas of exclusive exploration. João believed that Columbus had discovered land within his domain and prepared to send his own expedition. The Spanish appealed to Alexander VI, the Spanish Borgia pope, who found in their favor, cutting Portugal out of huge swaths of the Atlantic Ocean that they believed they had carved out for themselves. Suddenly Portuguese Atlantic hegemony was threatened, and they were not about to have their decades of investment snatched away. João threatened war. The two sides agreed to face-to-face negotiations, bypassing the pope, to defuse a major diplomatic row.

Conveniently, this alteration was to bring the coast of Brazil, as yet apparently undiscovered, within the Portuguese ambit. Since there was no way of accurately fixing the longitude of the Tordesillas meridian, the exact position of the line continued to be fiercely disputed. It would remain so until 1777.

Like 1492 itself, the treaty marked a decisive moment in the end of the Middle Ages. Although what was agreed at Tordesillas was later ratified by Pope Pius III, rights to the world had effectively been removed from the hegemony of the papacy. They had been calculated by scientists and carved up according to secularized national interests. In effect, the two Iberian powers at the cutting edge of exploration had turned everywhere beyond Europe into a privatized political space, to the bemusement of other monarchs.

“Like 1492 itself, the treaty marked a decisive moment in the end of the Middle Ages. Although what was agreed at Tordesillas was later ratified by Pope Pius III, rights to the world had effectively been removed from the hegemony of the papacy. They had been calculated by scientists and carved up according to secularized national interests. In effect, the two Iberian powers at the cutting edge of exploration had turned everywhere beyond Europe into a privatized political space, to the bemusement of other monarchs.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 27 of 351, 9%.

Only the Portuguese knew enough to find a sea route there and to link up the world. They had a window of opportunity denied to their Spanish competitors.

“Only the Portuguese knew enough to find a sea route there and to link up the world. They had a window of opportunity denied to their Spanish competitors.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 2 The Race, p 27 of 351, 9%.

The India plan, which had faltered in the later troubled years of João’s reign, became the primary outlet for these dreams. Manuel believed he had inherited the mantle of his granduncle Henrique, “the Navigator.” Since the fall of Constantinople, Christian Europe had felt itself increasingly hemmed in. To outflank Islam, link up with Prester John and the rumored Christian communities of India, seize control of the spice trade, and destroy the wealth that empowered the Mamluk sultans in Cairo—from the first months of his reign, a geostrategic vision of vast ambition was already in embryo; it would, in time, sweep the Portuguese around the world. If it was forged in the spirit of crusade, it also had a material dimension: not only to wrest trade from the Mamluks but also to replace the Venetians as the mart for the luxury goods of the Orient. The project was at the same time imperial, religious, and economic. It was in this spirit that Manuel started to assemble the expedition to reach the Indies, a vaguely defined space, given the lack of detailed knowledge, that in the European imagination probably encompassed the whole of the Indian Ocean and wherever spices might grow.

“The India plan, which had faltered in the later troubled years of João’s reign, became the primary outlet for these dreams. Manuel believed he had inherited the mantle of his granduncle Henrique, “the Navigator.” Since the fall of Constantinople, Christian Europe had felt itself increasingly hemmed in. To outflank Islam, link up with Prester John and the rumored Christian communities of India, seize control of the spice trade, and destroy the wealth that empowered the Mamluk sultans in Cairo—from the first months of his reign, a geostrategic vision of vast ambition was already in embryo; it would, in time, sweep the Portuguese around the world. If it was forged in the spirit of crusade, it also had a material dimension: not only to wrest trade from the Mamluks but also to replace the Venetians as the mart for the luxury goods of the Orient. The project was at the same time imperial, religious, and economic. It was in this spirit that Manuel started to assemble the expedition to reach the Indies, a vaguely defined space, given the lack of detailed knowledge, that in the European imagination probably encompassed the whole of the Indian Ocean and wherever spices might grow.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 3 Vasco da Gama, October 1495–March 1498, p 31 of 351, 10%.

Five hundred years later, Arab dhow captains would still be cursing this Muslim pilot who first let the Franks, the Europeans they called the ferengi, into the secrets of the ocean’s navigation.

“Gama was anxious to obtain a pilot, and it took another hostage seizure to extract one. The sultan dispatched a “Christian” who was willing to steer the expedition across the ocean to their desired destination. He was more likely a Gujarati Muslim, possessed of a chart of the western Indian coast and familiar with quadrants for taking astronomical observations. Five hundred years later, Arab dhow captains would still be cursing this Muslim pilot who first let the Franks, the Europeans they called the ferengi, into the secrets of the ocean’s navigation.”

Calicut itself was a major producer of ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, although better quality of the latter could be had from “an island called Ceylon, which is eight days journey to the south.”

“Calicut itself was a major producer of ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, although better quality of the latter could be had from “an island called Ceylon, which is eight days journey to the south.”” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 5 The Samudri, May 1498–August 1499, p 71 of 351, 21%.

The voyage had been epic; they had been away a year, traveled twenty-four thousand miles. It was a feat of endurance, courage, and great luck. The toll had been heavy. Two-thirds of the crew had died.

“The voyage had been epic; they had been away a year, traveled twenty-four thousand miles. It was a feat of endurance, courage, and great luck. The toll had been heavy. Two-thirds of the crew had died.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. Chapter 5 The Samudri, May 1498–August 1499, p 79 of 351, 24%.

Vasco da Gama’s voyage had taken everyone by surprise. It had added eighteen hundred new places to Europe’s gazetteer of the world and revealed a mine of new information about the Indies. It would quickly compel all interested parties across a vast stretch of the globe—Christian, Muslim, and Hindu—to make fresh strategic calculations, and it would lead inevitably to commercial conflict and outright war. As for Manuel, it increased his confidence. To his existing titles, “King of Portugal and of the Algarves on this side and beyond the sea in Africa, and Lord of Guinea,” he added “Lord of the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India.” It was a bold claim to the monopoly of trade, and an intimation of Portuguese intentions: that the sea should be owned. Even before Gama’s return, the king had been laying down keels for the next departure. By the same token, he had ordered the suppression of all the sailing charts of Gama’s voyage on pain of death. Knowledge was wealth and power.

Cabral’s expedition marked the shift from reconnaissance to commerce and then conquest.

“Cabral’s expedition marked the shift from reconnaissance to commerce and then conquest.” Reference Crowley, Roger (2015, Sep.). “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire.” Kindle Edition. PART II Contest MONOPOLIES AND HOLY WAR 1500–1510, Chapter 6 Cabral, March 1500–October 1501, p. 85 of 351, 25%.

It was critical to find a solution to the problem of the Franks, but given their technological superiority, this would not prove easy.

In Cairo itself, the sultan, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, had other things to concern himself with—outbreaks of sedition, threats to the pilgrim routes to Mecca and Medina from Bedouin tribesmen, an empty treasury—but the sudden appearance of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean was as disconcerting as it was inexplicable. “The audacity of the Franks knows no limit,” reported the chronicler Ibn Iyas of their growing incursions.

The raja had thrown in his lot with the Christians and would live or die by his decision.

With the Sodrés now unable to help, the small Portuguese colony and the king of Cochin, along with his immediate followers, remained holed up on Vypin, awaiting rescue. At the start of September 1503, their faith was rewarded by the arrival of two ships from Lisbon, the first installment of the year’s spice convoy, commanded by Francisco de Albuquerque. Hard on his heels a fortnight later, four more ships reached the island. They carried two of the most talented commanders Portugal was ever to produce.

Back in India, the samudri started his advance on Cochin in March 1504. He had assembled a vast army, some fifty thousand men, composed of troops drawn from his own territories and those of his vassal cities, comprising a large contingent of Nayars, the military caste of the Malabar Coast, supported by the Muslim community of Calicut, along with the baggage and paraphernalia required: three hundred war elephants, artillery, and a force of some two hundred ships to close the port of Cochin.

Duarte Pacheco Pereira, however, had come for the fight. He understood perfectly what was at stake: lose Cochin, and the other friendly ports would submit to Calicut.

By close observation, Pereira, probably the first man to scientifically study the relationship between tides and lunar phases, was able to predict when each ford would be passable and to shuttle his few ships and men accordingly to meet points of attack.

There had been repeated debates and fierce opposition voiced within the court about the wisdom of the India venture. The high loss of life, the stubborn resistance of the samudri, the massacre at Calicut, the noble preference for local crusading in nearby Morocco, the fear of the jealousy of rival princes—all these had led to strong resistance to Manuel’s plans. But by 1505 the king, supported by an inner circle of ideologues and advisers, was sure that it was his destiny to pursue the India project. What was wrapped up in the proclamation of February 27 was an entirely new strategy, a bold long-term plan resting on ambitions of breathtaking scale: to establish a permanent empire in India backed up by military force and to gain control of all the trade of the Indian Ocean.

This was, to all intents and purposes, the Portuguese Mayflower, departing to settle a new world. It carried cannons for forts as well as cannons for ships; goods to trade (lead, copper, silver, wax, coral); prefabricated components for fortresses, such as window frames and dressed stone; wood for the construction of small ships; and a host of other building materials and tools. They had come to stay.

Two were to suppress internal revolts in the Arabian Peninsula, the third “to oppose the incursions of the Franks on the shores of India.

Yet rulers up and down the Malabar Coast were to find that once the Franks were ensconced behind solid ramparts, with artillery mounted on stout gun platforms, they proved almost impossible to dislodge.

However, the persuasive speech of Almeida, as reported by the historian Barros, contained another, perhaps more far-sighted, strand. He declared that “the principal intention of his king Don Manuel in making these discoveries was the desire to communicate with the royal families of these parts, so that trade might develop, an activity that results from human needs, and that depends on a ring of friendship through communicating with one another.” It was a prescient awareness of the origins and benefits of long-distance trade: the runaway train of globalization that had started with Vasco da Gama.

Elsewhere, the Mamluk naval expedition that had set out in 1505 was moving at a similarly leisurely pace. The commander, Hussain Musrif, was evidently in no hurry to confront the Franks, and his expedition had multiple tasks to perform along the way. The fortification of Jeddah, of which he was also the governor, was his first priority—in particular, overseeing the construction of robust defenses against the possibility of Portuguese attack. The danger of a strike against Mecca, at that moment being proposed in Lisbon, was sufficiently alarming to ensure that the whole of 1506 was spent in the Red Sea. There were also revolts among the Bedouin to be crushed. It was not until May the following year that the Jeddah defenses were complete.

“Latterly the audacity of the Franks knows no bounds,” wrote the chronicler Ibn Iyas.

For the viceroy, however, the picture was darkening. All of Manuel’s expansionist plans depended on maintaining a stable base on the Malabar Coast, and this rested not only on a disciplined naval force, with its unanswerable bronze cannons, but also on prestige. It was essential that the perceived advantages of trading with the Franks remained high among the network of city-states. During 1506, confidence in the Portuguese was starting to falter.

Three ships were burned before the news of Lourenço’s imminent arrival forced a withdrawal, but it was clear that the fort was unsustainable: too close to hostile Bijapur, too short of natural resources.

“Within a couple of months of its construction, the Anjediva fortress was found to have been a mistake. Wherever they went, the incomers were intruding on a vested interest. Here it was the preserve of the sultan of Bijapur, whose ships forced passing traffic into his own port of Dabul to pay customs dues. He was not about to tolerate an interloper. At the start of the monsoon season a carefully timed attack, led by a Portuguese renegade, put the fort under siege. Three ships were burned before the news of Lourenço’s imminent arrival forced a withdrawal, but it was clear that the fort was unsustainable: too close to hostile Bijapur, too short of natural resources. At the end of the year, Almeida took the decision, without reference to Manuel, to abandon and dismantle the structure. It was a riposte to the wisdom of the grand plan, and it did not go down well. At the same time, it gave hope to Muslim merchants that the Portuguese could be dislodged.”

The historian João de Barros summarized its consequences for captains and commanders: “that in decisions about whether to fight…so that honorable deeds may be done, even if dangerous, they must not raise objections based on the personal safety of their lives.” Henceforward prudence was impossible.

Merchants began to rue the monopoly pact with the Franks and yearn for a return to the reliable Mecca trade.

“An even more serious loss than the Dabul incident befell loyal local merchants over the winter of 1506. Tristão da Cunha’s fleet failed to arrive. For the first time since Vasco da Gama’s first visit in 1498, no fleet came from Lisbon to buy spices. The ports of Cannanore and Cochin were well stocked with merchandise they were unable to sell. Merchants began to rue the monopoly pact with the Franks and yearn for a return to the reliable Mecca trade.”