What Route Did Vasco da Gama Take to India?

Vasco da Gama’s first voyage of 1497 to 1499 followed a route that became the standard Portuguese path to India for the next 450 years, the carreira da Índia. The voyage began in Lisbon, ran south to the Cape Verde Islands, swung far out into the South Atlantic, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, climbed the East African coast, and finally crossed the Indian Ocean to the Malabar Coast of India. The route was painstakingly developed over almost a century of Portuguese exploration, building on the earlier voyages of Gil Eanes, Bartolomeu Dias, and the cartographic work sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator. For the full account of da Gama’s career, see the cluster page Vasco da Gama and the Sea Route to India.

Stage 1: Lisbon to the Cape Verde Islands

The fleet departed Lisbon on 8 July 1497. The four ships, São Gabriel, São Rafael, Berrio, and a small supply store ship, sailed down the Portuguese Atlantic coast, past Cape St. Vincent, and out into the open ocean. They made a brief stop at the Canary Islands, which were claimed by Castile, and then continued south to the Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese possession off the African coast, which they reached in late July.

The Cape Verde stop was important for provisioning. The Portuguese used the islands as a base for Atlantic voyages, and they stocked fresh water, food, and timber before the long Atlantic crossing.

Stage 2: The South Atlantic Swing

This is the part of the route that the earlier Portuguese explorers had discovered. Instead of sailing directly south along the African coast, da Gama sailed southwest from the Cape Verde Islands, into the open South Atlantic, eventually reaching the coast of Brazil. The idea was to use the south Atlantic gyre, the circular pattern of winds and currents, to avoid the contrary currents and unfavorable winds along the Gulf of Guinea.

Da Gama’s fleet ran down the Brazilian coast and curved east, eventually reaching the African coast in late October 1497, near the Cape of Good Hope. This great-circle route, swinging wide to the west, was a key innovation that allowed the Portuguese to make fast and reliable passages to the East Indies.

Stage 3: The Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa, is a major geographical and navigational landmark. The strong westerly winds of the “Roaring Forties” make the rounding difficult, and storms have claimed many ships. Da Gama and his fleet reached the Cape in late November 1497.

Bartolomeu Dias had first rounded the Cape a decade earlier, in 1488, and his feat was the immediate inspiration for the da Gama expedition. Rounding the Cape is also a major psychological milestone: it was the southernmost point of Africa, and once past it, ships were committed to the Indian Ocean.

Stage 4: The East African Coast

After rounding the Cape, da Gama sailed up the East African coast, hugging the shoreline. This was a region of well-established Arab and Swahili trading cities, including:

Mossel Bay, where da Gama’s men fought a brief skirmish with local Khoikhoi people.
Natal, the coast of present-day KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
Mozambique, on the East African coast.
Sofala, a port that had long been the terminus of gold and ivory trade from the Zimbabwean interior.
Malindi, which became a Portuguese ally.
Mombasa, which was hostile to the Portuguese.
Lamu, a small island with Arab merchants.

The East African leg of the voyage lasted several months and was the first sustained direct contact between the Portuguese and the Swahili city-states. Relations were mixed. Some rulers, like the sultan of Malindi, were willing to ally with the Portuguese against their rivals. Others, like the sultan of Mombasa, were hostile. The Portuguese took on a pilot at Malindi, believed to have been the Arab navigator Ahmad ibn Majid, who guided them across the Indian Ocean.

Stage 5: The Crossing of the Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean crossing was the most strategically important leg of the voyage, and the most psychologically taxing. The distance from Malindi to Calicut, on the Malabar Coast of India, was roughly 4,000 miles across open ocean. The Portuguese had no idea of the geography of this ocean, and they had to rely on the compass and dead reckoning, the subject of the long-tail page What Is Dead Reckoning?.

Da Gama’s fleet departed Malindi on 24 March 1498, with the help of the southwest monsoon winds. After 23 days at sea, they made landfall near Calicut on 20 May 1498. The 23-day crossing was remarkable for its accuracy: they had estimated the voyage to take a similar time, and they arrived in roughly the right location.

Stage 6: The Malabar Coast and Calicut

The Malabar Coast of present-day Kerala, in southern India, was a major trading region. The city of Calicut was the principal port and the seat of the zamorin, the local Hindu ruler. Calicut was already a center of the spice trade, with pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and other spices produced in the interior and exported to the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Da Gama’s reception in Calicut was mixed. The zamorin was interested in the Portuguese, and Portuguese goods were valued, but the Arab and Muslim merchants already in Calicut actively worked against the new arrivals. After two months of difficult negotiation, da Gama was forced to leave without a firm trading agreement, and his departure had violence.

The Return Voyage

The return voyage was even more difficult than the outward leg. The monsoon winds had changed, and the fleet had to wait in East Africa for several months for favorable winds. Scurvy, which we now know is caused by vitamin C deficiency, was devastating: more than half of the original 170 sailors died.

Da Gama finally sailed from East Africa in early 1499, reaching Lisbon in late August or September 1499, with two ships and fewer than 60 surviving crew. The cargo of spices he brought, although small, was worth about 60 times the cost of the expedition. The success of the voyage established the viability of the route, and within a decade the Portuguese state was operating a regular, profitable India run.

Why the Route Mattered

The route da Gama pioneered was the first viable all-sea route from Europe to Asia. It broke the Venetian and Mamluk monopoly on the spice trade, which had channeled Asian spices through the Red Sea and the Levant to the Mediterranean. By reaching Asian spice sources directly, the Portuguese could capture a much larger share of the profits.

The route was also the foundation of the Portuguese Empire in Asia, which would last until 1961. Over the next century, the Portuguese established fortified trading posts at key points along the route: Sofala, Mozambique Island, Malindi, Mombasa, Ormuz, Goa, Cochin, and Malacca. These posts were the entrepôts of the Estado da Índia, the Portuguese state in Asia. Read more about the related East India Companies that would later challenge Portuguese dominance.

The Lasting Geographic Impact

Da Gama’s route remained the principal sea path to India for centuries. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created a shorter alternative, but the route around the Cape remained important for very large ships and for the Cape route to East Asia. The geography of the route, the seasonal monsoon winds, and the chain of supply ports along the African coast all shaped the history of European contact with Asia.