Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
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Riveting, bloody history! Roger Crowley makes the people and the action come alive on the page. Conquerors is not a mere recitation of facts, but a look deep into the thoughts and emotions of the Portuguese explorers who found the way to India and the way to dominate the Malabar Coast. Their methods were brutal. They were fearless, bloodthirsty, arrogant and hateful. They killed countless thousands for territory, plunder, religion, revenge or just to show that they were not to be messed with. This is much more than the history I remember from school about the Portuguese and the spice trade. Fortunately, the Portuguese kept good records giving Crowley much material to work with and he uses it well.
Of all the states in 15th century Europe, how did a small and poor country like Portugal become the one to open a direct route to India? Crowley answers this question and many more as he not only gives us the history of Portugal’s discovery and exploitation of India but explains the motivations and reasoning of the leaders. He recounts the determination of King Joao II and King Manuel I to find a way around the African continent to India culminating in the successful voyage of Vasco da Gama from 1497-99. The kings were driven by three things: 1) A desire to find the fabled Prester John, a Christian ruler on the other side of the Muslim world, and ally with him against the Muslims. 2) The opportunity to access the riches of India including spices, gems and gold. 3) And perhaps most importantly to establish their prestige and Portugal as a major player in Europe.
Starting out, the Portuguese were naïve. Their experience was based on encounters with West African tribes as they methodically advanced down the African Coast. They had no concept of how the world bordering the Indian Ocean worked. When Vasco da Gama landed in India, he and his crew were taken aback when they immediately encountered a Castilian speaking Tunisian. What they found was a sophisticated world they could not comprehend. Anchoring in Calicut (present day Kozhikode), Gama was taken to the ruler, the Samudiri Raja (aka Zamorin). The Portuguese thought he was the Christian Prester John, perhaps mistaking Krishna for Christ, although they did wonder why the pictures of the saints had so many arms and legs. The Samudri was not impressed with Gama and his men. The gifts they brought, trinkets and foods they had used in trade in Africa, were insulting. The Samudri expected gold. What the Portuguese didn’t get was that Calicut was a center of trade that encompassed many religions and cultures. The Portuguese were the barbarians. Into Calicut came spices and gems from India and other south Asian countries, Chinese porcelain via Malacca, and products from Arab lands from North Africa to Persia.
The Portuguese believed they had a God given destiny and they had an iron will. They also were out for profit. The spice trade to Europe was controlled by Venice and Genoa working through Arab intermediaries who got the goods to Cairo. Along the way many middlemen were paid. If the Portuguese got the goods directly they could cut the cost by more than 80%. Status was also very important to the Portuguese king, Manuel I. He had to write to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain that his ships “did reach and discover India” in an obvious slight to whatever that adventurer Columbus had found. A couple of years later a Portuguese expedition to India stumbled onto the coast of Brazil, but it was considered unimportant.
The Portuguese carried with them intense hatred of the Muslims with whom they fought continuously in North Africa. The Portuguese were battle hardened fighters and seasoned sailors. They were confident in their canons, which were superior. The Muslims were well established traders in India. Initially the Portuguese had to rely on Muslims as translators first to take the Portuguese to Arabic then the Arabic to Malayalam, the language of Calicut (and part of present day south Indian state of Kerala). The Muslims saw the Portuguese as competitors and helped foster discord which given the Portuguese ignorance and arrogance would have developed anyway. After doing some trading, Gama finally wanted to leave, but the Samudiri wanted his tax money first. One thing led to another and Gama took off without paying taxes and taking Hindu hostages with him on his return to Portugal. The Portuguese now were considered completely untrustworthy at best and dangerous enemies at worst.
In 1500, another expedition was launched from Portugal under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral (pictured above). He was as hardened as any Portuguese commander and the king’s instructions were clear: Destroy Muslim ships. When Cabral landed at Calicut, a new Samudiri was in command but relations were no better especially when Cabral informed him of his intentions to capture any Muslim ship on open water and began doing so. This news riled the public which attacked the Portuguese loading spices on shore. Suffering casualties Cabral fled Calicut but turned back and took out his revenge capturing ten ships in Calicut harbor and killing the five to six hundred people aboard. Then he leveled his guns on the city delivering a ferocious bombardment destroying many buildings. There was now no doubt about how the Portuguese planned to engage their new trading partner. Cabral had left with thirteen ships but only seven ships, five loaded with spices, made it back in 1501. The others were lost to storms and accidents, something that proved to be all too common.
In 1502, the next expedition with twenty ships left under Vasco da Gama’s command. The Portuguese would now fight first, talk later. They finally figured out that Hindu’s were not Christians and considered them pagans under the influence of Muslims. The first thing Gama did upon arrival in India was to capture a Muslim ship, the Miri. About 250 passengers were returning from Mecca, some were rich. They offered Gama everything they had to let them go. Gama took nothing. After some fierce resistance, Gama set the ship on fire and watched them burn. He did pull off twenty children who were to be converted to Christianity. Gama was sending notice: Be afraid, very afraid. This incident was long remembered in India. Gama was determined to avenge the death of Cabral’s men killed in the prior expedition. He captured 34 Muslims and fisherman and entered Calicut harbor with them hanging from the masts so everyone could see. Residents lined the beach looking in horror. Gama opened fire killing many as they fled then he turned his guns on the buildings and houses in the town. Gama then cut down those he had hanged, cut off their heads, hands and feet and put the body parts in a fishing boat. He attached a note and sent it to shore. The note began “I have come to this port to buy and sell and pay for your produce. And here is the produce of this country. I am sending you this present now. It is also for your king...”
The Portuguese sent more ships and men each year to the Malabar Coast to establish a permanent presence and expand their very profitable and growing spice trade. New commanders took over, but all were every bit as vicious as Vasco da Gama, and this is what King Manuel expected of them. More and more local leaders threw in their lot with the Portuguese seeing them as invincible. The Portuguese protected their new vassal states and built forts to protect their landholdings and their spice trade. They continued to hunt down and destroy Muslim shipping. In one encounter in 1504 an entire Muslim convoy was set on fire killing 2,000. They felt justified by their religion and motivated by greed and long standing hatred. Despite initial misconceptions about India, the Portuguese soon built up a good understanding of trade, politics, geography, weather and what to expect. Over the past decades they had become skilled observers and record keepers with their exploration of the African Coast and African rivers.
One commander stood out, Afonso de Albuquerque. His initial forays plundering ports along the Arabian coast earned him the reputation as ‘The Terrible’. His message to each town, submit and pay tribute or be destroyed, was not different than that of his predecessors. Nor was the zeal and cruelty of his crew, mostly criminals from Lisbon prisons, who looted, raped and destroyed. But Albuquerque was exceptionally intimidating, highly intelligent, supremely confident and a gifted strategist. Albuquerque was made governor of India by King Manuel, but first his predecessor Francisco de Almeida had a vendetta to settle, the death of his son in battle by Muslims whom the Portuguese called Rumes. On December 31, 1508, Almeida attacked the rich Muslim trading port of Dabul (now Dhabol). His forces overran the city with orders to leave nothing alive. After killing every man, woman, child and animal in sight, Almeida burned the town down killing those who hid in cellars. Like the Miri this horrific event was long remembered in India. Almeida believed Dabul had helped the Egyptian fleet involved in his son’s death. He found the fleet at the port of Diu. A fierce battle ensued and as usual it involved intense hand to hand combat at which the Portuguese excelled. The Rumes (Muslims soldiers and sailors of many different nationalities) were defeated with few surviving and the entire Egyptian fleet destroyed. When the governor of Diu capitulated, he was forced to hand over all remaining Rumes in the town. Almeida devised especially grisly deaths for all of them.
When Albuquerque finally took over from Almeida, he started a three year campaign that would transform the Portuguese presence in India. His target was the Island of Goa which he believed was very defensible and could be held as permanent Portuguese territory. It had a deep harbor and ships entering or leaving were easily observed ensuring tax collections. It occupied a central position between two large rival states. It was the center of the profitable horse trade from Arabia and Persia to India, a nice addition to the existing spice trade. Albuquerque also sought to professionalize his fighters in the mold of Swiss mercenaries that had been very successful in the Italian wars. This meant discipline and regimentation. The Portuguese had been wildly successful with their medieval brawl warfare. The Indian forces had never seen the fearlessness and ferocity of the Portuguese fighting men. But Albuquerque knew this approach didn’t scale. The Portuguese were consistently outnumbered and their ambitions were big, very big.
In 1510, Goa was taken easily then lost as the Muslim leader, Adil Shah, assembled a large force to retake the Island. But Albuquerque considered it essential to take back Goa and he did in a crushing attack. As he reported to King Manuel “Our Lord has done great things for us, because he wanted us to accomplish a deed so magnificent that it surpasses even what we have prayed for...I have burned the town and killed everyone. For four days without pause, our men have slaughtered...wherever we have been able to get into we haven’t spared the life of a single Muslim. We have herded them into the mosques and set them on fire… We have estimated the number of dead Muslim men and women at six thousand. It was, sire, a very fine deed.” Other port cities quickly took notice and sent ambassadors to the Portuguese in Goa. Albuquerque had ordered that Hindus be spared. Albuquerque was in for the long term and initiated a mixed marriage policy allowing Portuguese men to marry Hindu women who converted to create a permanent Christian community. And oddly for someone who killed people like insects he abhorred and tried to outlaw the Hindu practice of suttee in which widows were immolated on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands. He even gave women property rights.
In 1511, Albuquerque set his sights on Malacca 1500 miles across the Indian Ocean on the Malay Peninsula. Malacca was a city of 120,000, bigger than Lisbon, almost the size of Venice. Malacca was a center of trade tying the Indian Ocean states to those in the Pacific taking in Chinese and Javanese goods as well as those from India and Persia. Albuquerque considered it strategic and would take it with only 1,000 Portuguese sailors and soldiers. His first attack had to be abandoned after he found his position vulnerable. But as before, Albuquerque learned much from loss. He quickly organized a second attack with a different plan that was successful. He employed the troops he had trained to use pikes in the Swiss regimented manner. They methodically cleaned out pockets of resistance. After nine days the sultan and his troops had to retreat into the jungle. As before, Albuquerque made sure every Muslim man woman and child was killed. He formed alliances with the Burmese, Hindus and Javanese. The Chinese also had helped him. Albuquerque did not allow the city to be burned but did let his men loot it. It was rich in treasure, much of which was lost on the return voyage when Albuquerque’s ship sank in bad weather and a commandeered Chinese junk got away. Albuquerque left a base and ships behind. From here the Portuguese explored Indonesia and China reaching Canton in 1515.
Upon Albuquerque’s return in 1512 he found Goa again under attack. With reinforcements and weapons sent by King Manuel including captains trained in Swiss military tactics as requested, Albuquerque in fierce fighting soundly defeated Adil Shah. This time he agreed to let the Muslim’s leave but demanded that Portuguese who had defected be handed over. He agreed not to kill them but afterwards he did slice off their ears, noses, right hands and left thumbs. With this victory Albuquerque saw his plan come to fruition establishing Portugal as an Indian power to be reckoned with. As Crowley notes “Albuquerque himself was the first European since Alexander the Great to establish an imperial presence in Asia.” Goa was well situated and fed enormous wealth into Lisbon.
In 1513 Albuquerque went into the heart of the Muslim world exploring the Red Sea. His hope was that ultimately he could establish bases there and divide the Muslim world in half. But it was not to be. In 1515 his health deteriorated and he died in Goa in 1515. He would be replaced by men who lacked his discipline and vision. King Manuel would die in 1521 with the Portuguese expansion sputtering. Still Goa survived as a Portuguese colony for over 400 years spawning a unique mixture of Indian and Portuguese people and cultures.
Crowley stands out as an excellent craftsman of readable history. This book is both informative and a gripping Tom Clancy-esque page turner. I knew little about how the Portuguese found India and how they established themselves, but I enjoyed learning it. There is much more in the book than presented in this review. The savagery and cruelty is disturbing and not for the faint of heart. Having read a number of histories that included depraved violence, I still recoiled at the vindictiveness of the Portuguese. With that as a caveat, I highly recommend Conquerors.
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