Crusade For Spice Essay
The Crusade for Spices by Jessica, Maverick, San San, and Yu Chan
Why did religious and economic motives fuel violent action as the Portuguese expanded their power to Asia? The year was 1496 c.e.. Europe is abuzz with the fantasies of unimaginable riches that Columbus’ voyages would bring from the indies. But the newly crowned king of Portugal, Dom Manuel I, sought a different goal, an opportunity to spread the faith. He was ambitious, dreaming to do what the united christian countries of the 11th century couldn’t do. The Ottoman empire, the spiritual successor of the kingdom that stopped those knights of old, was blockading Europe from Asian trade. But more importantly, they still held the holy land. Manuel dreams of retaking Jerusalem. He sent Vasco Da Gama to sail across the coasts of Africa. His job was not to barge into Ottoman lands and go by brute force. Instead, he was to take the long way around. He would attempt to reach the real India and engage in trade. The spices of the east would be the fuel that would …show more content…
enable the Portuguese crusade.
At his first arrival to the entrepot of Calicut, Da Gama was attempting to establish a trading system with the Indians. However, he failed to do any such thing, because he did not have proper goods to trade with. In the end, Da Gama humiliated himself in the presence of the Zamorin and his courtiers. Da Gama went back to Europe, detailing his adventures and netting the profits with the relatively small amount of pepper he had acquired.
Due to his relentless grudge against the Indians from his last trip, he was determined to visit Calicut again.
While he was gone, another fleet came to trade with the Zamorin. This other Portuguese force was eventually driven out, but not before constructing two forts on the ports of Cochin and Cannanore. Da Gama used these places for a base of operation. Weeks of trade negotiations and religious tension was finally broken with an assault on Calicut and the Zamorin. Despite the Zamorin’s attempts at peace, Da Gama took all of his offerings but proceeded to siege Calicut. All the sailors boarding the tributary ships were amputated and sent back in a their burning vessels.The superior naval prowess of the portuguese dominated the inhabitants of Calicut, practically forcing them to submit. Over the next subsequent years since this battle, the Portuguese would have control over most of the important ports in India and other trade centers to its
south.
Da Gama and the Portuguese’s raid on the Indies was a result of a chain of events. The journey began with a peaceful approach to the entrepots of India but as time passed it flipped into violent terms. The Portuguese were willing to seize and conquer the entrepots for money, so they did. So the purpose of making money was embedded in the purpose to form a crusade to set Jerusalem free from the hands of the Muslims. Therefore the purpose of forming a crusade for Jerusalem caused the Portuguese to “do” violent actions.
Why did religious and economic motives fuel violent action as the Portuguese expanded their power to Asia? The year was 1496 c.e.. Europe is abuzz with the fantasies of unimaginable riches that Columbus’ voyages would bring from the indies. But the newly crowned king of Portugal, Dom Manuel I, sought a different goal, an opportunity to spread the faith. He was ambitious, dreaming to do what the united christian countries of the 11th century couldn’t do. The Ottoman empire, the spiritual successor of the kingdom that stopped those knights of old, was blockading Europe from Asian trade. But more importantly, they still held the holy land. Manuel dreams of retaking Jerusalem. He sent Vasco Da Gama to sail across the coasts of Africa. His job was not to barge into Ottoman lands and go by brute force. Instead, he was to take the long way around. He would attempt to reach the real India and engage in trade. The spices of the east would be the fuel that would …show more content…
enable the Portuguese crusade.
At his first arrival to the entrepot of Calicut, Da Gama was attempting to establish a trading system with the Indians. However, he failed to do any such thing, because he did not have proper goods to trade with. In the end, Da Gama humiliated himself in the presence of the Zamorin and his courtiers. Da Gama went back to Europe, detailing his adventures and netting the profits with the relatively small amount of pepper he had acquired.
Due to his relentless grudge against the Indians from his last trip, he was determined to visit Calicut again.
While he was gone, another fleet came to trade with the Zamorin. This other Portuguese force was eventually driven out, but not before constructing two forts on the ports of Cochin and Cannanore. Da Gama used these places for a base of operation. Weeks of trade negotiations and religious tension was finally broken with an assault on Calicut and the Zamorin. Despite the Zamorin’s attempts at peace, Da Gama took all of his offerings but proceeded to siege Calicut. All the sailors boarding the tributary ships were amputated and sent back in a their burning vessels.The superior naval prowess of the portuguese dominated the inhabitants of Calicut, practically forcing them to submit. Over the next subsequent years since this battle, the Portuguese would have control over most of the important ports in India and other trade centers to its
south.
Da Gama and the Portuguese’s raid on the Indies was a result of a chain of events. The journey began with a peaceful approach to the entrepots of India but as time passed it flipped into violent terms. The Portuguese were willing to seize and conquer the entrepots for money, so they did. So the purpose of making money was embedded in the purpose to form a crusade to set Jerusalem free from the hands of the Muslims. Therefore the purpose of forming a crusade for Jerusalem caused the Portuguese to “do” violent actions.