Vasco da Gama reaches India
Europe opens direct sea trade with Asia
Vasco da Gama's Portuguese squadron sailed around Africa and reached Calicut on India's Malabar Coast. Opening the sea route to India launched direct European maritime trade with Asia and European colonial expansion.
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Did you know
Zheng He's first fleet sailed in 1405, 93 years before Vasco da Gama reached India. Later Chinese voyages went as far as East Africa.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1492 Fall of Granada — 6 years earlier
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — 4 years earlier
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — 10 years later
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — 19 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — 20 years earlier
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — 18 years earlier
Middle East
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — 3 years later
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — 22 years later
Africa
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — 10 years earlier
Americas
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — 6 years earlier
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — 21 years later
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — 23 years later
Alive at the time
- Christopher Columbus (aged 47)
- Leonardo da Vinci (aged 46)
- Nicolaus Copernicus (aged 25)
- Michelangelo (aged 23)
- Martin Luther (aged 15)
- Ivan III (aged 58)
- Isabella I of Castile (aged 47)
- Henry VII (aged 41)
- Maximilian I (aged 39)
- Moctezuma II (aged 32)