The State of India, also referred as the Portuguese State of India or simply Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the Kingdom of Portugal. The capital of Portuguese India served as the governing centre of a string of military forts and trading posts scattered all over the Indian Ocean.
The Battle of Diu was a naval battle fought on 3 February 1509 in the Arabian Sea, in the port of Diu, India, between the Portuguese Empire and a joint fleet of the Sultan of Gujarat, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt and the Zamorin of Calicut.
Dom Francisco de Almeida, also known as the Great Dom Francisco, was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492. In 1505 he was appointed as the first governor and viceroy of the Portuguese State of India. Almeida is credited with establishing Portuguese hegemony in the Indian Ocean with his victory at the naval Battle of Diu in 1509. Before Almeida returned to Portugal he lost his life in a conflict with indigenous people at the Cape of Good Hope in 1510. His only son Lourenço de Almeida had previously been killed in the Battle of Chaul.
Nuno da Cunha was a Portuguese admiral who was governor of Portuguese possessions in India from 1529 to 1538. He was the governor of Portuguese Asia that ruled for more time in the sixteenth century in a total of nine years. He was the son of Antónia Pais and Tristão da Cunha, the famous Portuguese navigator, admiral and ambassador to Pope Leo X. Nuno da Cunha proved his mettle in battles at Oja and Brava, and at the capture of Panane, under the viceroy Francisco de Almeida. Named by João III ninth governor of Portuguese possessions in India, he served from April 1529 to 1538. He was named to end the government of governor Lopo Vaz de Sampaio (1526–1529) and brought orders, by King John III of Portugal, to send Sampaio in chains for Portugal. This delicate mission by the King was justified by their close connection ever since the king was still a prince.
Qutb-ud-Din Bahadur Shah, born Bahadur Khan was a sultan of the Muzaffarid dynasty who reigned over the Gujarat Sultanate, a late medieval kingdom in India from 1526 to 1535 and again from 1536 to 1537. He ascended to the throne after competing with his brothers. He expanded his kingdom and made expeditions to help neighbouring kingdoms. In 1532, Gujarat came under attack of the Mughal Emperor Humayun and fell. Bahadur Shah regained the kingdom in 1536 but he was killed by the Portuguese on board a ship when making a deal with them.
The history of Gujarat began with Stone Age settlements followed by Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlements like Indus Valley civilisation. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch, served as ports and trading centers in the Nanda, Maurya, Satavahana and Gupta empires as well as during the Western Kshatrapas period. After the fall of the Gupta empire in the 6th century, Gujarat flourished as an independent Hindu-Buddhist state. The Maitraka dynasty, descended from a Gupta general, ruled from the 6th to the 8th centuries from their capital at Vallabhi, although they were ruled briefly by Harsha during the 7th century. The Arab rulers of Sindh sacked Vallabhi in 770, bringing the Maitraka dynasty to an end. The Gurjara-Pratihara Empire ruled Gujarat after from the 8th to 10th centuries. While the region also came under the control of the Rashtrakuta Empire. In 775 the first Parsi (Zoroastrian) refugees arrived in Gujarat from Greater Iran.
The Ottoman-Portuguese conflicts were a period of conflict during the Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations and series of armed military encounters between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire along with regional allies in and along the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea.
Malik Ayyaz, called Meliqueaz by the Portuguese, was a naval officer and governor of the city of Diu, in the mouth of the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), circa 1507–1509 under the rule of Gujarat Sultanate. He was one of the most distinguished warriors of his time.
The Diu Fortress is a Portuguese-built fortification located on the west coast of India in Diu. The fortress was built as part of Portuguese India's defensive fortifications at the eastern tip of the island of Diu during the 16th century. The fortress, which borders on the town of Diu, was built in 1535 subsequent to a defense alliance forged by Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat and the Portuguese when Humayun, the Mughal Emperor attempted to annex this territory. It was strengthened over the years, till 1546. The Portuguese ruled over this territory from 1537 until the Indian invasion of December 1961. Today it is a landmark of Diu and one of the Seven Wonders of Portuguese Origin in the World.
The siege of Diu occurred when an army of the Sultanate of Gujarat under Khadjar Safar, aided by forces of the Ottoman Empire, attempted to capture the city of Diu in 1538, then held by the Portuguese. The Portuguese successfully resisted the four months long siege. It is part of the Ottoman-Portuguese war.
The third siege of Diu was a siege of the Portuguese Indian city of Diu by the Gujarat Sultanate in 1546. It ended with a major Portuguese victory.
The siege of Diu occurred when a combined Ottoman-Gujarati force defeated a Portuguese attempt to capture the city of Diu in 1531. The victory was partly the result of Ottoman firepower over the Portuguese besiegers deployed by Mustafa Bayram, an Ottoman expert.
The Battle of the Gulf of Oman was a naval battle between a large Portuguese armada under Dom Fernando de Meneses and the Ottoman Indian fleet under Seydi Ali Reis. The campaign was a catastrophic failure for the Ottomans who lost all of their ships.
Khoja Zufar or Coje Çafar, also called Coge Sofar, or Safar Aga in Portuguese, Cosa Zaffar in Italian, and Khwaja Safar Salmani in Turkish or Khuádja Tzaffar in Arabic, was a soldier and local ruler in Western India during the 16th century. He was a leader in the failed Siege of Diu. Zufar was an experienced merchant with the distant markets of the Arabian Gulf around the Strait of Mecca and Lepanto at the Mediterranean.
The Battle of Suakin of 1541 was an armed encounter that took place in 1541 in the city of Suakin, held by the Ottoman Empire, and which was attacked, sacked and razed by Portuguese forces under the command of the Portuguese governor of India, Dom Estêvão da Gama.
The siege of Daman in 1581 was a military engagement between Portuguese forces and those of the Shah of Gujarat in the city of Daman, in India. A Mughal army engaged the Portuguese in an attempt to set up a siege, but was forced to withdraw.
The Portuguese conquest of Daman was a military campaign undertaken by the Portuguese Empire against the city of Daman, in India, until then owned by the Sultanate of Gujarat. The Portuguese captured the city.
Gujarati–Portuguese conflicts refers to the armed engagements between the Portuguese Empire and the Sultanate of Gujarat, in India, that took place from 1508 until Gujarat was annexed by the Mughal Empire in 1573.
Mughal–Portuguese conflicts refers to the various armed engagements between the forces of the Portuguese Empire in India and the Mughal Empire, between the 16th century and the 18th century.
Adil Shahi–Portuguese conflicts refers to the various armed engagements that took place in India between the Portuguese Empire and the Sultanate of Bijapur, ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty, whose rulers were known to the Portuguese as Hidalcão.
Portuguese Empire