PORTUGUESE IN INDIA

• In 1498 Vasco da Gama of Portugal discovered a new sea route from Europe to India. He sailed around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut.
• He was welcomed by the Zamorin, the Hindu ruler of Calicut
• In 1500 another Portuguese Pedro Alvares Cabral arrived in India and Vasco da Gama also made a second trip in 1502.
• Portuguese established trading settlements at Calicut, Cochin, and Cannanore.
• The First Governor of the Portuguese in India was Francis de Almeida.
• In 1509 Alfonso de Albuquerque was made the governor of the Portuguese territories in India and in 1510 he captured Goa from the ruler of Bijapur thereafter Goa became the capital of the Portuguese settlements in India.
• In 1530 Nino da Cunha captured Diu and Bassein from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. They also established settlements at Salsette, Daman and Bombay on the West Coast and at San Thome near Madras and Hugli in Bengal on the East Coast
• Portuguese brought tobacco cultivation in India
• Established printing press in Goa in 1556

1. Dutch in India

• The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602 under the name Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie.
• Dutch set up their first factory at Masulipatnam in Andhra
• They also established trading depots at Surat, Broach, Cambay, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Cochin in Kerala, Chinsura in Bengal, Patna in Bihar and Agra in U.P
• They ousted the Portuguese from the Malay Straits and the Indonesian islands
• The Dutch were defeated by the English in the Battle of Bedara in 1759