Hello. We’ve come to subjugate and exploit you. Have a nice day.
What is lost to contemporary recall, however, is the fact that for some time after 1492, no great account was made in Europe of Columbus’s achievements. He plainly hadn’t found Asia, only some savages on the edge of the world with little or nothing to offer even as slave fodder. What Europe longed and lusted for was a way to the East Indies, to break the Ottoman’s stranglehold on trade and gain access to spices like cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves.
This was done by Vasco Da Gama, a name unlikely to stir but the dimmest of junior high memories, the intrepid if merciless Portuguese who was the first to circumnavigate the African continent and the subject of Nigel Cliff’s history. Rather than focus on Da Gama’s narrow biographical details, Cliff seeks to give the reader a big picture perspective by prefacing his narrative with a broad brush history of the birth and growth of Islam and its centuries long clash with Christianity, with a particular focus on the Iberian Peninsula and the processes that led to the expulsion of the Moors and the emergence of modern Portugal and Spain. Despite these setbacks, Islam still remained strong in the form of the Ottoman Empire, which took full advantage of its control of the spice trade to gouge the hated Europeans. Cliff describes how the Crusader spirit and a desire to aggrandize their realm led Portugese monarchs to send ships beyond the Pillars of Hercules out into the unknown Atlantic in search of treasure and a way to circumvent the infidels. This all leads naturally and gracefully to Da Gama’s first voyage, a grueling ten month journey into terra incognita.
Cliff intricately describes the journey’s miserable rigors, at sea on uncharted waters on fragile, wooden craft propelled only by the wind, poorly designed and suited for the harsh conditions they endured; at the mercy of terrible storms especially around the ironically named Cape of Good Hope; and the starvation and scurvy crew and officers suffered with men dying like flies. It all adds up to what has to be one of the most awful ordeals at sea ever suffered by men, a trip that makes Columbus’s voyages look like an outing in a rowboat at the pond in the city park on a sunny day. Cliff also gives a good, thorough account of Da Gama’s activities once he reached India. Upon arrival, the Portuguese pitiful trade goods were mocked and they learned that the spices they sought were entirely tied up by Muslim merchants. Da Gama reacted in typical imperialist fashion by bombarding Indian coastal cities and with piratical raids upon Muslim ships with crew and passengers left to die on burning wrecks.
A sidebar here. While I carry no brief on the man’s behalf, I’m often puzzled by the modern proclivity to heap scorn and abuse on Columbus as if he were a particularly extreme example of a horrible person in history. Like any other human being, Columbus was a product of his time and place. Again, it’s not meant as an excuse, but it should be remembered that he was a contemporary of the Borgias and Machiavelli, none of whom have gone down in history as being particularly nice. This holds true of his fellow explorer Da Gama. As far as any Muslim was concerned, even women and children, he was fully prepared to show no mercy. His treatment of Indians was ruthless as well, especially after the Portugese figured out that they weren’t really Christians as they originally supposed, but followers of another religion, Hinduism, about which they know nothing at all. Where Da Gama differed from other Portugese explorers of his age was in his incorruptibility, his integrity (he showed absolute loyalty to his monarch), and his insistence on fidelity to duty from officers and men. For his accomplishments, he was richly rewarded only to die in harness on his last voyage to India.
Cliff does an able job with his subject. His prose is modern, thorough, and easy to follow, although the details of 16th century Indian and European politics can be sometimes complex and confusing to follow. He takes an objective view of his subject, carefully evaluating Da Gama’s strengths and weaknesses, and uses occasional flashes of humor to alleviate what is oftentimes a very grim chronicle indeed. I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in learning more about early modern history, exploration, sea voyages, and Muslim-Christian relations.