Question

The formation of European trading companies in india. explan ​

Answer 1

The Portuguese:

The merchants sailed over the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea and reached Europe through Arabia. But in the seventh century when Arabia became very strong as a power it dominated the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The commerce of India and her neighboring countries in the South-East was dominated by the Arab merchants from whom the merchants of Venice, Genoa and other Italian cities purchased the Indian goods, mainly spices and re-sold these to different European countries. There was naturally a desire among the Europeans to find out a direct route to the countries of the East as it was the main source of ‘precious stones and pearls and various drugs and spices’ (Marco Polo).

When Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese mariner disembarked at the Indian port of Calicut in 1498, a new era began in the relations between Asia and Europe. Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the direct sea route to India brought the Portuguese merchants in India, who coveted the advantages of the eastern trade.

The Hindu ruler of Calicut whose title was Zamorin treated the Portuguese mariner in a very friendly way which encouraged them to open up commercial relations with Calicut within two years. In 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral sailed out from Lisbon with 1200 Portuguese and thirteen ship and a huge quantity of merchandise and reached Calicut. Hardly Alvarez had arrived at Calicut when he began to forcibly deprive the merchants of other nations of the benefits of their commerce. A large number of Arab merchants used to throng at the port of Calicut at that time and much of the prosperity of the Port of Calicut was due to Arab merchants who carried on trade there.

But Alvarez made him-self so haughty and his ambition became so limitless that he soon earned the displeasure of the Zamorin. But when Alvarez tried to out the Arab merchants from Calicut it brought him into hostilities with the Zamorin. The Portuguese began to take part in the political intrigues among the neighbouring Indian states and even entered into alliance with the enemies of the Zamorin, the chief of whom was the ruler of Cochin.

The Portuguese were also engaged in piratical raids on the merchant ships of other traders. Alvarez was followed by Vasco da Gama for a second time (1502) and he set up factories in Cochin and Cannanore. After this the Portuguese Government began to send one officer annually to look after the affairs of the Portuguese in India. In this way the Portuguese somehow main­tained their existence in India struggling against the Arab merchants and the local rulers, when the Portuguese government sent Alfonso Albu­querque as the Governor of the Portuguese affairs in India.

 

 

With the Coming of Albuquerque, the foundation of the Portu­guese power in India was really laid. In 1510 Albuquerque by a sudden attack occupied the port of Goa from the Bijapur Sultan and arranged for its defence by strengthening its forts. He made Goa the centre of the Portuguese power as also of commerce in India. For a small country like Portugal it was not possible to send out sufficient number of colonists to India, as such, Albuquer­que encouraged his Portuguese followers to marry Indian women and thereby he thought of raising a Portuguese population in India arid a permanent Portuguese settlement.

Albuquerque realised that if the Portuguese were to hold a monopoly control over the Indian commerce, they must bring Aden, Ormuz and Malacca under control. He succeeded in occupying Ormuz and Malacca and thereby served the interest of his country. But his inhuman treatment of the Muslims tarnished his name.

Under Albuquerque’s successors the Portuguese occupied Diu, Daman, Salsette, Bassein, Chaul, and Bombay, San Thome near Madras and Hughli in Bengal. Portuguese occupation of Diu gave them control of the mouth of the bay of Cambay which compelled the Arabs to withdraw from their Indian trade.

The Portuguese also occupied the major part of Ceylon. With the expansion of territories the Portuguese began to spread Christianity and in 1534 Pope Paul III raised the Church at Goa into a Bishopric and in 1538 the Portuguese Church in Goa was placed under a Bishop. A few years later Jessuit missionary Fransisco Xavier came to Goa and took the lead in spreading Catholic Christianity in Goa. He died in 1552 in Goa and was made a saint.

 

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