Vasco da Gama

As much as anyone after Henry the Navigator, Gama was responsible for Portugal's success as an early colonising power. Beside the fact of the first voyage itself, it was his astute mix of politics and war on the other side of the world that placed Portugal in a prominent position in Indian Ocean trade. Following Gama's initial voyage, the Portuguese crown realized that securing outposts on the eastern coast of Africa would prove vital to maintaining national trade routes to the Far East.

Nevertheless, Vasco da Gama's international fame has more often been argued as due to historical reasons for which he was hardly responsible.[23] It is to be noted that unlike Columbus or Magellan, Gama was never sailing in uncharted waters. He was not making a discovery as India was no terra incognita as it was already in contact with Europe, Africa and Asia for ages. The seafarers of African coast from where Gama set out for Calicut knew the routes and winds and more importantly he was accompanied by a Portuguese- knowing Arab merchant provided by the Sultan of Malindi in East Africa. Gama, in fact pioneered modern European Colonialism built up by men who combined greed with diplomacy and covered up the greed with sophistication

Gama's arrival at Calicut and the so- called discovery of sea route to India was not an important event in the international trade scene. The official Kozhikode Grandhavari (Calicut Chronicles) did not even deem the episode of Gama meeting the Zamorin worthy of separate reference. It looms large in our minds when we look back in search of a specific, dramatic starting point for modern European colonialism in India and the rest of Asia. It was pleasing to the western mind as it enhanced the prestige of Europe recovering from the throes of the Dark Ages.

The Portuguese national epic, the Lusíadas of Luís Vaz de Camões, largely concerns Vasco da Gama's voyages. The 1865 opera L'Africaine: Opéra en Cinq Actes, composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugène Scribe, prominently includes the character of Vasco da Gama. A 1989 production of the composition by the San Francisco Opera featured noted tenor Placido Domingo in the role of Gama. The 19th century composer, Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, composed an eponymous 1872 opera based on Gama's life and exploits at sea.

The port city of Vasco da Gama in Goa is named after him, as is the crater Vasco da Gama on the Moon. There are three football clubs in Brazil (including Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama) and Vasco Sports Club in Goa that were also named after him. There exists a church in Kochi, Kerala called Vasco da Gama Church, and a private residence on the island of Saint Helena. The suburb of Vasco in Cape Town also honours him.