00:0020th May 1498, a Portuguese fleet drops anchor at Kapad near Kalikat in Kerala.
00:06On board Vasco da Gama, the man who cracked open the sea route to India and with it, the
00:11gates to European colonialism.
00:13You will hear a lot of experts called da Gama an explorer but he was truly a messenger of
00:17empire.
00:18The Portuguese crown wanted spices like pepper, cardamom, cloves but without paying middlemen
00:24in Arabia and Venice, so they sent da Gama to sail around Africa and find India by sea.
00:29It took him 10 months and nearly half his crew died en route.
00:33But when he reached Kalikat, the local king wasn't dazzled.
00:35Da Gama offered cheap trinkets and wool.
00:38The Zamorin asked, where's your gold?
00:40Though the first trade deal was modest, it cracked the old overland monopoly wide open.
00:45In the next two decades, Portuguese ships would bomb coastal cities, set up armed factories
00:50and demand taxes from Indian traders.
00:52By 1510, they seized Goa.
00:55By 1530, missionaries were converting fisherfolk in Tamil Nadu.
00:59Da Gama had left India by then but the dominoes were falling.
01:02Da Gama's voyage marked the start of European naval domination in the Indian Ocean.
01:07It changed shipbuilding, trade networks, religious demography and diplomacy.
01:12And it rewired India's global position from a cultural exporter to a colony invading.
01:18Think of it as the first notification in a 450 year chain reaction.
01:22Portugal, then the Dutch, then the British.
01:25Today, Kuppert Beach has a small plaque to mark Da Gama's landing spot.
01:29For Kerala, it's a mix of pride and pain, proof of India's ancient links to the world
01:35and the first European footfall that would later take root in blood and loot.
01:40The phrase Vaska Da Gama still appears in textbooks, postage stamps and protest graffiti.
01:45So, on 20th May, remember, before East India companies, before colonies, before empire,
01:51there was a sailor, a map and a cargo hold filled with ambition and a coastline that would
01:56never be the same again.
01:57I am Manisha Dikari.
01:58Thank you for watching The Culture Project on more.
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