Establishment of Portuguese naval hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
DomFrancisco de Almeida (Portuguese pronunciation:[fɾɐ̃ˈsiʃkuðɨalˈmɐjðɐ]; c. 1450 – 1 March 1510), was aPortuguese nobleman, soldier andexplorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to KingJohn II of Portugal and later in the wars against theMoors and in the conquest ofGranada in 1492. In 1505 he was appointed as the first governor and viceroy of the PortugueseState of India (Estado da Índia). Almeida is credited with establishing Portuguesehegemony in the Indian Ocean with his victory at the navalBattle of Diu in 1509. Before Almeida returned to Portugal he lost his life in aconflict with indigenous people at theCape of Good Hope in 1510. His only sonLourenço de Almeida had previously been killed in theBattle of Chaul.
Almeida was born atLisbon. As was customary for men in his social circle, he joined the military at an early age. In 1476 he took part in theBattle of Toro. Then he fought in conflicts in different parts ofMorocco and in 1492 participated in the Christian conquest ofGranada on the side of theCastilians.[citation needed]
Portuguese presence in India ,Gulf of Bengal and the Himalayas (maximum extent) between the 15th and 17th centuriesAcarrack, 14 of which Almeida employed in his voyage to the east
In 1505, KingManuel I of Portugal made Almeida, then in his mid-fifties, the first viceroy ofPortuguese India (Estado da Índia).[1] With an armada of 22 ships, including 14carracks and 6caravels, Almeida departed from Lisbon on 25 March 1505. The armada carried a crew of 1,500 soldiers. Theflagship was the carrackSão Rafael captained by Fernão Soares. The mission's primary aims were to bring the spice trade under Portuguese control, build forts along the east African and Indian coasts, further Portuguesespice trade through alliances with local chieftains, and construct trading posts.
Almeida rounded theCape of Good Hope and entered African coastal waters again atSofala and theIsland of Mozambique, whence they proceeded northwards to the coastal settlement ofKilwa. In July 1505, they employed 8 ships to attack and conquer the roughly 4,000-strong population of this harbour town. Because of the good harbour that the town provided, sufficient for anchoring ships of up to 500 tons, the Portuguese decided to build a fort here. For this purpose, Pêro Ferreira and a crew of 80 soldiers remained in the town.
In 1505, Francisco d'Almeida arrived with eleven heavily armed ships that destroyedKilwa,Barawa, andMombasa, a coastal port further north. The city with a population of about 10,000 wasconquered in heavy combat against the troops of the local Arab sheikh. The city was plundered and torched. The Portuguese were assisted in this attack by an enemy of Mombasa, the Sultan ofMelinde. The same month, a caravel of Almeida's fleet captained by John (João) Homere capturedZanzibar island and claimed it for Portugal.
On 25 March 1505, Francisco de Almeida was appointed asViceroy of India, on the condition that he would set up four forts on the southwestern Indian coast: atAnjediva Island,Cannanore,Cochin, andQuilon.[2] Francisco de Almeida left Portugal with a fleet of 22 vessels with 1,500 men.[2]
On 13 September, Francisco de Almeida reached Anjediva Island, where he immediately started the construction ofFort Anjediva.[2] On 23 October, he started, with the permission of the friendly rulerKōlattiri, the building ofSt. Angelo Fort inCannanore, leaving Lourenço de Brito in charge with 150 men and two ships.[2]
Francisco de Almeida then reached Cochin on 31 October 1505, with only eight vessels left.[2] There he learnt that the Portuguese traders at Quilon had been killed. He decided to send his sonLourenço with 6 ships, who wantonly destroyed 27Calicut vessels in the harbour of Quilon.[2] Almeida took up residence in Cochin. He strengthened the Portuguese fortifications ofFort Manuel on Cochin.
TheZamorin of Calicut prepared a large fleet of 200 ships to oppose the Portuguese, but in March 1506 De Almeida's sonLourenço de Almeida intercepted Zamorin's fleet in a sea battle at the entrance to the harbour of Cannanore, theBattle of Cannanore, and inflicted heavy losses. Hereupon Lourenço de Almeida explored the coastal waters southwards toColombo, in modern-daySri Lanka. Meanwhile, the Zamorin succeeded in convincing the Kōlattiri of Cannanore of the true imperialistic motives of Portuguese in Kerala. The Kōlattiri was already annoyed and angered with the Portuguese for their violation of the safe conduct guaranteed to the ships of Muslim merchants of Cannanore. The Kōlattiri joined the fight against the Portuguese, besieging Fort St. Angelo at theSiege of Cannanore.
In 1507, Almeida's mission was strengthened by the arrival ofTristão da Cunha's squadron.Afonso de Albuquerque's squadron had, however, split from that of Cunha off east Africa and was independently conquering territories to the west.[citation needed]
In March 1508, at the request of the Arab merchants of Calicut, an Egyptian fleet under the command ofAmir Husain Al-Kurdi (Mir Hussain) of theMameluk Egyptian attacked and defeated the Portuguese squadron under command of Lourenço de Almeida atChaul in theBattle of Chaul. Lourenço de Almeida was killed in this battle and this led to a temporary retreat by the Portuguese from Indian waters.[3]
Afonso de Albuquerque arrived at Cannanore at the close of 1508 and immediately made known a hitherto secret commission he had received from the King empowering him as governor to replace Almeida at the end of his term as viceroy. Almeida, determined to avenge the death of his son and free the Portuguese prisoners taken at Chaul, refused to recognize Albuquerque's credentials immediately, and later arrested him.[citation needed]
In 1509, Almeida became the first Portuguese to arrive by ship inBombay. He sought Meliqueaz, to whom he had written a menacing letter, and theMameluk Mirocem, fiercely engaging them at the navalBattle of Diu on 3 February 1509 commanding a fleet of 23 ships near the port ofDiu. He inflicted a decisive defeat on a joint fleet from theMamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, theOttoman Empire, theZamorin ofCalicut, and theSultan of Gujarat, with technical naval support from theRepublic of Venice and theRepublic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), which feared for their eastern trade links.[4]
His victory was decisive: the Ottomans and Egyptians left the Indian Ocean, enabling a Portuguese trade monopoly over Indian waters for over 100 years, into the 17th century when it was ended by the Dutch and English. Albuquerque was released after three months' confinement, on the arrival of the grand-marshal of Portugal with a large fleet, in November 1509.[5]
Almeida sailed for Portugal in December 1509 and reachedTable Bay near the Cape of Good Hope, where the Garcia, Belém, and Santa Cruz dropped anchor in late February 1510 to replenish water. There they encountered the local indigenous people, the ǃUriǁ'aikua (recorded as "Goringhaiqua", aKhoe-speaking clan).[6] After friendly trade with the ǃUriǁ'aikua, some of the crew visited their nearby village, situated in modern-dayObservatory where they tried to steal some of the locals' cattle. Almeida allowed his captains Pedro and Jorge Barreto to return to the village on the morning of 1 March 1510.[7] The village's cattle herd was raided with the loss of one man, while Almeida awaited his men some distance from the beach. As the flagship's master Diogo d'Unhos had moved the landing boats to a watering point, the Portuguese were left without a means of retreat. The ǃUriǁ'aikua sensed the opportunity for an attack, during which Almeida and 64 of his men perished, including 11 of his captains.[8][9] Almeida's body was recovered the same afternoon and buried on the shore front of the currentCape Town.[10] An archivist,Nicolaas Vergunst, suggested in a 2011 book that De Almeida was the victim of a plot by his own men, who intentionally cut off his retreat after the planned provocation of the ǃUriǁ'aikua[11]
Almeida was the son of the 1stCount of Abrantes and one of a number of highly distinguished siblings including two bishops, an ambassador to theHoly See and the Portuguese head of the Order of Malta. His son, Lourenço, was killed in the battle of Chaul, but he was survived by a daughter, Leonor, who was married twice: with Dom Rodrigo de Melo,Count of Tentúgal, precursor of theDukes of Cadaval, and with Francisco de Mendonça, of the House of the Alcaides deMourão.[12] He also had a bastard daughter, Susana, who married Diogo de Barbuda, Alcaide ofSeia.[13]Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães) accompanied Almeida to the east, but was promoted to captain and only returned in 1512 after losing that commission.
^Marjay, Frederic Pedro; Habsburg, Otto von (1965).Portugal, Pioneer of New Horizons: Documentary Proof of Portuguese Priority in Discovering the Secrets of the Globe. Lisboa: Livraria Bertrand. p. 34.
^abcdefLogan, William (2000) [First published 1887].Malabar Manual. Vol. 1. New Delhi: J. Jetley for Asian Educational Services. p. 312.ISBN81-206-0446-6.
^Sreedhara, A. Menon (1967).A Survey of Kerala History. D.C. Books Kottayam. p. 152.
^Pelúcia, Alexandra (2016).Afonso de Albuquerque : corte, cruzada e império (in Portuguese) (1a edição ed.). Lisboa: Temas e Debates - Círculo dos Leitores. pp. 193–195.ISBN978-989-644-337-5.OCLC958470506.
Note: The head of Portuguese India could have either the title of "Governor" or the more prestigious "Viceroy" though their responsibilities were the same