Daily History Challenge · No. 36 · Monday 3 August 2026 · When?
Puzzle No. 36: When?
The event was Vasco da Gama opens the sea route to India, in 20 May 1498.
The answer
On 20 May 1498 the Portuguese commander Vasco da Gama anchored near Calicut (Kozhikode) on India's Malabar Coast, becoming the first European to reach India by sea. Departing Lisbon in 1497, his fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailed up the East African coast, and crossed the Indian Ocean with the help of a local pilot from Malindi. By linking Europe directly to the spice-producing markets of the Indian Ocean, da Gama's voyage bypassed the Venetian and Muslim intermediaries who had long controlled the overland and Red Sea routes. It launched the Portuguese maritime empire (the Estado da India), redirected the lucrative spice trade toward the Atlantic seaboard, and inaugurated nearly five centuries of European involvement in Asian commerce and politics. The achievement ranks alongside Columbus's crossing as a foundational event of the Age of Exploration, but oriented toward the riches of the East rather than the unknown West.