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1498: Vasco da Gama reaches India
Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India by a sea route, arriving at Calicut on the Malabar Coast. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon in July 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and anchored at Malindi on the east coast of Africa. With the aid of an Indian merchant he met there, he then set off across the Indian Ocean. Da Gama was not greeted warmly by the Muslim merchants of Calicut, and in 1499 he had to fight his way out of the harbour on his return trip home. In 1502, he led a squadron of ships to Calicut to avenge the massacre of Portuguese explorers there and succeeded in subduing the inhabitants. In 1524, he was sent as viceroy to India but fell ill and died in Cochin.
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