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| In 1998, as the quincentennial of Vasco da Gama's arrival on their shores approached, Indians were at odds over how to acknowledge an event that led to 450 years of Portuguese colonialism. On the coast of Kappad near Calicut, where Vasco da Gama's fleet had first dropped anchor, protestors flew black flags and demanded that the names of cities and villages written in Portugese be changed. As a committee of Indian and Portuguese officials planned a year-long program of celebratory events, many Indian historians, writers, and activists decried the willingness of both governments to exploit such a contentious historical moment for the profit of tourism. |
Oceanos, numero 33, p.59 |
| The few contemporary sources from da Gama's first voyage to India in 1497--among them Alvaro Velho's Roteiro da Primeira Viagem de Vasco da Gama (The Diary of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama) found in this collection--reveal Portugal's then prominence in maritime skills. Though miscalculations caused da Gama to veer off-course for ninety days, his fleet was able to sail from Lisbon on July 8th, 1497, around the Cape of Good Hope, and finally arrive on the Malabar coast of India on May 18th, 1498. |
A Descoberta do Caminho Maritimo para a India, p.viii |
| Vasco da Gama's voyages to India resulted in centuries of Portuguese colonialism throughout Asia (Macao was only returned to the Chinese government in 1999). However, whether colonization was Portugal's first intention is a matter of debate. It seems that Portugal, a country formed by its struggles against the Moors, sent da Gama abroad to seek pre-existing Christian nations with which to form anti-Islamic alliances. The lucrative spice trade was further temptation for the Portuguese crown. Eventually, these aims led to religious conversion, inethical trade, and colonization. |
The Land of the Great Image, p.31 |
| This collection brings together a variety of texts focusing on Vasco da Gama's travels to Asia. These books, journals, pamphlets, periodicals, and broadsides range widely in age, approach, focus, and language. Among them are works released to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the journey as well as the 500th. Illustrated children's books from the first half of the last century can be found alongside histories, poetry, and recent critical scholarly works. Many of the books contain prints of maps da Gama and his contemporaries used, as well as drawings and lithographs of the India they experienced. The texts appear in English, French, Portuguese, German, and Latin. |
Oceanos, numero 33, p. 112 |
| Of note are the several translations and editions of Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads), written in 1572 by Luis vaz de Camoes. An epic poem patterned after the Aeneid of Virgil, The Lusiads interweaves the story of Vasco da Gama's first journey to India with narrative and prophetic references to other events of Portuguese history and a surprising blend of Christianity and Classical mythology. Although it is in some ways a nationalist epic like Virgil's, and celebrates the achievements of the sons-of-Lusus (that is, the Lusiads, or Portuguese), it also reflects the poet's misgivings about the morality and the necessity of colonialism. Before da Gama's men set sail, an old man casts aspersions on their heroic enterprise, comparing it to Adam's disobedience: |
Oceanos, numero 33, p.167 |
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Camoes knew first-hand the problems of colonialism. A member of the nobility who had fallen into financial difficulty, he was exiled from Portugal for murky reasons--possibly a love-affair with an unavailable woman of higher rank. He was moved from post to post in the Portuguese colonies, from Morocco, to India, to Macao. A rogue by all accounts, the poet lost an eye in a street brawl and escaped from a shipwreck in Mozambique clutching his manuscript of The Lusiads. Shortly thereafter, in 1570, he returned to Lisbon, penniless. Camoes had not benefitted much from the supposed riches the colonies promised. He survived the rest of his years on a small royal pension from the publication of his epic, and died in poverty in Lisbon in 1580. --text by Liz Vederman |
List of books in the collection (incomplete)
Related websites
"Explorer
or Exploiter?" an article by Archana Masih from Rediff on the Net
"Pero
da Covilhao" from Discoverers Web
"Vasco
da Gama Arrives in India, 1498" from the History Department at
North Park University
"Vasco
da Gama through Portuguese Eyes" from Goa World
"The
Voyage to India and Those Who Influenced It," an article by Brian
Elliott
