Pedro Álvares Cabral's Expedition To India

Pedro Álvares Cabral lived from c. 1467-1520. During his lifetime he made an expedition to India, but ended up discovering a new land in the process. He was born in Belmonte, Portugal, and was the son of respected nobles, in turn receiving many privileges from King Manuel I of Portugal, such as being made one of his counselors. This is how he got involved in exploration- King Manuel chose him to lead an expedition to the coast of southern India. The king made him the captain of a fleet of 13 ships and 1,200 men- they would take Vasco da Gama's route to India in order to establish trading posts there. Hoping to strengthen trade between Portugal and India, Cabral and his crew set sail from the port of Libson on March 9th, 1500. Cabral and his ships sailed south from Portugal, past the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. Although he had meant to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, winds pushed his ships to the west. He used this to his benefit and began sailing in a southwesterly direction, but went farther than he intended and soon spotted land. On April 22nd, 1500, he landed near what is now Porto Seguro, a city in
During the journey, four of Cabral's ships were lost because of the whirlpool- including one headed by the renowned explorer Bartolomeu Dias. However, Cabral made it to Calicut, present-day Kozhikode, and set up a trading post there, although Muslims attacked the post and killed 50 of Cabral's men. Cabral then attacked the city in retaliation, and sailed to Coshin, present-day Kochi, and Cannanore, which is now called Kannur, to trade for valuable spices and goods. On January 16th, he left for Portugal, losing even more ships along the way. He finally made it back on June 23rd, 1501, bringing with him many goods- pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, porcelain, pearls, and even