Advent of the Europeans: Portuguese, Dutch and Danes

European traders came to India by the sea route after Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, and the Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and Danes competed for the Indian Ocean trade.

Why Europeans came

• Trade in spices, cotton cloth, indigo and saltpetre was very profitable.
• The Ottoman capture of Constantinople (1453) made the old land routes costly and unsafe.
• Advances in ship-building and navigation (compass, astrolabe) and the Renaissance spirit of discovery.
• A wish to spread Christianity.

Order of arrival

The Portuguese

• Vasco da Gama reached Calicut on 20 May 1498, helped by a Gujarati pilot, and was received by the Zamorin.
• Pedro Alvares Cabral (1500) set up a factory at Calicut. Cochin (1503) became the first Portuguese fort.
• Francisco de Almeida (1505 to 1509) followed the "Blue Water policy" (control of the sea instead of land forts). He won the Battle of Diu (1509) against Egyptian and Gujarati ships.
• Alfonso de Albuquerque (1509 to 1515) took Goa from Bijapur in 1510, made it the capital, built forts and encouraged marriage with local women. He is the real founder of Portuguese power in India.
• Nino da Cunha shifted the capital from Cochin to Goa (1530), and Goa grew into a major centre. The first printing press in India was set up in Goa (1556).
• The Portuguese introduced the cartaz (trade permit) system, tobacco, maize, potato, chilli, pineapple and cashew. Their settlements included Goa, Daman, Diu, Salsette, Bassein and San Thome.
• Bombay was given to Charles II of England as dowry (1661) on his marriage with Catherine of Braganza.
• Decline: religious intolerance and the Inquisition at Goa (1560), rise of Brazil, Dutch and English naval power. Goa, Daman and Diu were freed by India in December 1961.

The Dutch

• Founded the VOC in 1602. First factory at Masulipatam (1605), then Pulicat (1610), Surat, Cochin, Nagapattinam and Chinsura.
• They focused on the spice islands of Indonesia, and used India for cotton goods and saltpetre. They lost the Battle of Colachel (1741) to Travancore, and were beaten by the English at Bedara (1759).

The Danes

Set up Tranquebar (Tharangambadi, 1620) and Serampore (1755). They sold their settlements to the British in 1845.