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Vasco Da Gama’S Voyages To India: Messianism, Mercantilism, And Sacred Exploits, S. M. Ghazanfar
Vasco Da Gama’S Voyages To India: Messianism, Mercantilism, And Sacred Exploits, S. M. Ghazanfar
Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective
The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama (1460-1524), was the first European to sail from Portugal to India. Accolades for this achievement have long obscured the messianic motivation for the 1498 voyage, “to invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens (Muslims) and pagans and other enemies of Christ; to reduce them to perpetual slavery; to convert them to Christianity; [and] to acquire great wealth by force of arms from the Infidels,” as sanctified by various Papal Bulls, together called “the Doctrine of Discovery” (Dum Diversas, 1452; Romanus Pontifex, 1455; Inter Caetera, 1493). The other key motive in …