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.
Portuguese Goa in 1600
Portuguese territory of Bassein fortress in Gujarat
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Portuguese Empire in the East, with its capital in Goa, was then often styled in Europe as the "Rome of the East"; it included possessions (subjected tracts of land with a certain degree of autonomy) in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Africa.
Portuguese fortress of Bassein, centre of the northern province.
Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India
The Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India was the first recorded trip directly from Europe to the Indian subcontinent, via the Cape of Good Hope. Under the command of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, it was undertaken during the reign of King Manuel I in 1495–1499. Considered one of the most remarkable voyages of the Age of Discovery, it initiated the Portuguese maritime trade at Fort Cochin and other parts of the Indian Ocean, the military presence and settlements of the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay.
Vasco da Gama on his arrival in India in May 1498, bearing the flag used during the first voyage by sea to this part of the world: the arms of Portugal and the Cross of the Order of Christ, sponsors of the expansion movement initiated by Henry the Navigator, are seen. Painting by Ernesto Casanova
Preste João (Prester John) by Diogo Homem, 1558, in the Biblioteca Britânica
The important trade routes of the silk and spices, blocked by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, led to the search for a sea route across the Atlantic skirting Africa.
Vasco da Gama presents to Dom Manuel the first fruits of India. National Library of Portugal, c. 1900
