Portugal maintained a commercial monopoly of these commodities for several decades. The main spices at first obtained from Southeast Asia were pepper and cinnamon, but soon included other products, all new to Europe. Unopposed access to the Indian spice routes boosted the economy of the Portuguese Empire, which was previously based along northern and coastal West Africa. Īfter decades of sailors trying to reach the Indies, with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, da Gama landed in Calicut on. The sum of the distances covered in the outward and return voyages made this expedition the longest ocean voyage ever made until then. Traveling the ocean route allowed the Portuguese to avoid sailing across the highly disputed Mediterranean and traversing the dangerous Arabian Peninsula. The violence and hostage-taking employed by da Gama and those who followed also assigned a brutal reputation to the Portuguese among India's indigenous kingdoms that would set the pattern for western colonialism in the Age of Exploration.

Da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India opened the way for an age of global imperialism and enabled the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire along the way from Africa to Asia. This is widely considered a milestone in world history, as it marked the beginning of a sea-based phase of global multiculturalism. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.

What sea route did vasco da gama use