A merchant from Tver reached India almost 30 years before Vasco da Gama.
Afanasy Nikitin arrived in 1469 and described it in his 'Journey Beyond Three Seas'; the Portuguese got there in 1498.
The events
- Afanasy Nikitin's journey to Indiac. 1469 · Bidar, Bahmani Sultanate (India). The Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin sailed down the Volga, crossed Persia and around 1469 reached India, where he spent almost three years, including in Bidar, capital of the Bahmani Sultanate. He died near Smolensk on the way home; his notes, A Journey Beyond Three Seas, are one of the first European accounts of India.
- Vasco da Gama reaches India1498 · Calicut. 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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