Page 14 - SST Class 08

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The Establishment of

Company Power

The Mughal Empire ruled most of the Indian succeeded in turning the
territories, right from the early 16th century to ruler of Calicut against
the mid-19th century. However, there were a him, who then ridiculed
series of eventful incidents that led to the fall of Vasco da Gama in an
the Mughal Empire and resulted in the powerful audience and expelled
Britishers taking over our country. As they took him from the land.
over the country, they introduced the concept of Thanks to Vasco da
trade and then used the same concept against us. Gama’s diplomatic skills,
In this chapter, we will look at a brief outline of the expedition succeeded
the series of events that gave the British, the in procuring some spices
power of our country. It all started with the East anyway, but due to
India Company arriving at the East. steadily worsening Vasco da Gama

DISCOVERY OF THE SEA-
External Boundary of the
ROUTE TO INDIA Mughal Empire, 1700 CE
Vasco da Gama, at the age of 28, was Indus
sent by the Portuguese king Manuel I
Chenab
on July 8th, 1497, to take his flotilla of Jhelum Lahore
Ravi
four ships and 180 men around Africa SIKHS Rakas Lake
Satluj Tsangpo
to India and bring back spices. The Panipat
Indus Delhi Yamuna Ganga
Flotilla left Restella, a port on the JATS Bharatpur Brahmaputra
AWADH
Jaipur Agra
mouth of the Teja River, near Lisbon. Jodhpur Lucknow
He rounded the Cape of Good Hope Chambal Gwalior Ganga Murshidabad
Son Tropic of Cancer
and anchored in Sao Braz (today MALWA BENGAL
GUJARAT
Mossel Bay), where he had the supply Baroda Narmada Bhopal Mahanadi
ship burned. The land where Vasco da Tapi
Gama arrived on December 24th, he Godavari Chilika
Poona MARATHAS B A Y
named Natal (Christmas) and it has O F
ARABIAN
that name today. After 11 months of SEA Hyderabad B E N G A L
Krishna
difficult sailing, the three Portuguese
caravels anchored in front of the Indian HYDERABAD
port city of Calicut on May 20th, 1498.
The port is on the Malabar coast. Here, Kaveri
Vasco da Gama met with opposition
from Arab traders, who had established
SRI
I N D I A N O C E A N
themselves there much earlier. They LANKA
Social Science-8 14