The Siege of Angediva in 1506 took place when the sultan of Bijapur ordered the capture of the fortress that the Portuguese had built on the island of Angediva, his domain.[1]
The island was explored on September 24, 1498 by Nicolau Coelho, a member of Vasco da Gama's expedition when he was on his way to Portugal after having discovered the sea route to India. Gama sent Nicolau Coelho to investigate the island with a boat. After disembarking on the island and sailing around it, Coelho returned to the flagship to inform Gama that on the island there were only the ruins of what seemed to him to be a church, some residents, a py, an aslacetic who lived in a cave, good water springs and a water tank. Vasco da Gama's fleet anchored there for 12 days resting the crews, loading provisions or water and repairing or fairing the ships. The island became, from now on, a favorite place for Portuguese navies to make watery.[2]
On September 13, 1505, the first viceroy of Portuguese India, Francisco de Almeida laid the foundations of the fortress of Angediva. Due to the lack of lime, the fortress was built of stone joined with clay. Manuel Pessanha remained as captain and Francisco de Almeida left a galley and two brigantines there to serve as a service fleet and opened a trading post under Duarte Pereira.[3]
The fortress was attacked just over six months later by a fleet of 60 ships in the service of the Sultan of Bijapur, "owner" of that island. A Portuguese renegade named António Fernandes commanded the fleet. The attack took place and the Muslims expected the fortress to surrender quickly, however, they were attacked by captain Manuel Pessanha and his men. The Muslims took refuge under trees on a hill and four days and nights later they fled, after realizing that the Portuguese garrison had come into contact with the fleet of Lourenço de Almeida.[4]
Francisco de Almeida later ordered the fortress to be dismantled and the Portuguese later abandoned the island. They would reoccupy it later.[1]
Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa, was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation as a fierce and skilled military commander.
D. Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the first European to reach India by sea.
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.
Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli.
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese navigator and explorer during the Age of Discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil. He died at sea, possibly off the coast of Mozambique, while returning from India in the 5th Portuguese Armada with Francisco de Albuquerque.
Portuguese maritime exploration resulted in the numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese as a result of their intensive maritime journeys during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapping the coasts of Africa and Asia, then known as the East Indies, and Canada and Brazil, in what came to be known as the Age of Discovery.
Anjediva Island is an Indian island in the Arabian Sea. It sits off the coast of Canacona, Goa. It is politically part of Goa state, geographically the nearest mainland is the coastal Kanara subregion of Karnataka.
Fort Anjediva, built on the Anjadip Island, off the coast of the Indian state of Karnataka but under the administrative jurisdiction of the Indian state of Goa, was once under Portuguese rule. The island of Anjadip has an area of 1.5 square kilometres (0.58 sq mi).
Gaspar da Gama also known as Gaspar da India and Gaspar de Almeida was an interpreter and guide to several fleets of the Portuguese maritime explorations. He was of Jewish origin and was probably born in Poznań in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1498 he was taken captive aboard Vasco da Gama's fleet on its return voyage to Portugal from India. He was known to speak multiple languages including Hebrew and Chaldean, as well as a mixture of Italian and Spanish.
The Second Portuguese India Armada was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral. Cabral's armada famously discovered Brazil for the Portuguese crown along the way. By and large, the Second Armada's diplomatic mission to India failed, and provoked the opening of hostilities between the Kingdom of Portugal and the feudal city-state of Calicut. Nonetheless, it managed to establish a factory in the nearby Kingdom of Cochin, the first Portuguese factory in Asia.
The 4th Portuguese India Armada was a Portuguese fleet that sailed from Lisbon in February, 1502. Assembled on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Vasco da Gama, it was the fourth of some thirteen Portuguese India Armadas, was Gama's second trip to India, and was designed as a punitive expedition targeting Calicut to avenge the numerous defeats of the 2nd Armada two years earlier.
The Fifth India Armada was assembled in 1503 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque. It was Albuquerque's first trip to India. It was not a particularly successful armada - navigational mistakes scattered the fleet on the outward journey. Ships spent much time looking for each other and several ended up travelling alone.
The Seventh India Armada was assembled in 1505 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy of the Indies. The 7th Armada set out to secure the dominance of the Portuguese navy over the Indian Ocean by establishing a series of coastal fortresses at critical points – Sofala, Kilwa, Anjediva, Cannanore – and reducing cities perceived to be local threats.
The 1505 expedition of Pêro de Anaia to Sofala led to the establishment of Fort São Caetano, the first permanent Portuguese colony in East Africa. The Capitaincy of Sofala would eventually evolve into the colonial government of Portuguese Mozambique.
José Gerson da Cunha was a Goan physician who achieved international renown as an indologist, historian, linguist and numismatist.
The military history of Bassein encompasses the period from 1526, when the Portuguese established their first factory at Bassein, until 1818, when Bassein lost its strategic importance following the defeat of the Marathas by the British.
The Portuguese presence in Asia was responsible for what would be the first of many contacts between European countries and the East, starting on May 20, 1498 with the trip led by Vasco da Gama to Calicut, India. Aside from being part of the European colonisation of Southeast Asia in the 16th century, Portugal's goal in the Indian Ocean was to ensure their monopoly in the spice trade, establishing several fortresses and commercial trading posts.
Leopoldo Cipriano da Gama Esq. was a Goan journalist and writer who was active during the era of Portuguese India. He was one of the notable contributors in the Portuguese weekly newspaper called A Convicção. Through his articles, he skillfully conveyed his humanistic education, ensuring that the Portuguese content he presented to readers was thoughtfully organized and devoid of excessive, unprocessed facts.
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.
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