Fresh from his victories in Malacca, he put down a rebellion in Goa, built more forts in the region, and set off on his final expedition to the Red Sea, the heart of the Arab merchant force.
There he laid siege to Aden, but by this time the Moslems were thoroughly aroused, and defended their home lands so ferociously that Albuquerque was compelled to raise the siege. By this time his political enemies in Portugal had planned his demise. They convinced the king of Portugal to relieve him of his duties.
Albuquerque was shocked and dismayed by this treacherous cowardice, and was too old to recover from this blow. He died at sea in after writing a long letter assuring the king of his loyalty. None of the Portuguese governors who followed Albuquerque had his energy or foresight and within a century, much of the Portuguese Empire in the Far East fell into the hands of the Dutch. Helps establish a Portuguese fort at Cochin. Attacks Arab cities in the Persian Gulf.
Imprisoned by Almeida. Captured the city and slaughtered the Moslem population. He reached Cannanore in December and revealed his secret instructions to supersede Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, with the title of governor. Almeida, refusing to give up command, imprisoned him until a powerful Portuguese fleet under Fernando Coutinho arrived in October with a confirmation of Albuquerque's appointment. He then assumed power. Albuquerque was the major figure in the establishment of the Portuguese sea empire in the East.
In he captured Goa, which he fortified and made the chief trading post and permanent naval base in India. To give it a stable character, he offered lands and subsidies to Portuguese men who would marry native women. In Albuquerque captured Malacca; from this base he could control the trade from the East Indies and the coast of China. During his governorship Portuguese vessels touched on the coast of China and sailed to some of the islands of the East Indies, gaining naval ascendancy in the Far East.
In Goa again in , Albuquerque strengthened Portuguese administration there and in other coastal cities and prepared a fleet for a campaign along the coasts of Persia and Arabia. On 10 September , Albuquerque set sail from Cochin to Goa with fourteen ships carrying 1, soldiers.
Determined to recapture the fortress, he ordered trenches to be dug and a wall to be breached. But on the very morning of the planned final assault, Rasul Khan surrendered. Albuquerque demanded the fort be handed with all its artillery, ammunition and horses, and the deserters to be given up. Some had joined Rasul Khan when the Portuguese were forced to flee Goa in May , others during the recent siege. Rasul Khan consented, on condition that their lives be spared. Albuquerque agreed and he left Goa.
Albuquerque kept his word, but mutilated them horribly. After such measures the town became the most prosperous Portuguese settlement in India. In December an envoy from Ethiopia arrived at Goa.
Mateus was sent by regent queen Eleni following the arrival of the Portuguese from Socotra in , as an ambassador for the king of Portugal in search of a coalition to help face growing Ottoman influence. He was received in Goa with great honour by Albuquerque, as a long sought " Prester John " envoy.
Although Mateus faced the distrust of some of Albuquerque rivals, who tried to prove he was some impostor or Muslim spy, Albuquerque sent him to Portugal.
He was, from the start, under orders from the kingdom to secure that channel to Portugal. Barren Socotra had proved ineffective to control the Red Sea entrance and was abandoned, and Albuquerque's hint that Massawa could be a good Portuguese base might have been influenced by Mateus' reports.
Knowing that Mamluks were preparing a second fleet at Suez, he wanted to advance before reinforcements arrived in Aden. He accordingly laid siege to the city. They cruised the Red Sea inside the Bab al-Mandab , as the first European fleet to have sailed this route. Albuquerque attempted to reach Jeddah, but the winds were unfavourable and so sheltered at Kamaran island in May, until sickness among the men and lack of fresh water forced to retreat.
In August , after a second attempt to reach Aden, they returned to India with no substantial results. In order to destroy the power of Egypt , Albuquerque is said to have entertained the idea of diverting the course of the Nile river and so rendering the whole country barren. Perhaps most tellingly, he intended to steal the body of the Prophet Muhammad , and hold it for ransom until all Muslims had left the Holy Land.
In Afonso de Albuquerque devoted himself to governing Goa, concluding peace with Calicut and receiving embassies from Indian governors, strengthening the city and stimulating the marriage of Portuguese with local women. At that time, Portuguese women were barred from travelling overseas due to superstition about women on ships, as well as the unsafe nature of the sea route.
In , the Portuguese government encouraged their explorers to marry local women, under a policy set by Albuquerque. To promote settlement, the King of Portugal granted freeman status and exemption from Crown taxes to Portuguese men known as casados , or "married men" who ventured overseas and married local women. With Albuquerque's encouragement, mixed marriages flourished. He appointed local people for positions in the Portuguese administration and didn't interfere with local traditions, except " sati ", the practice of immolating widows, which he forbade.
His reputation reached its peak, laying foundations of the Portuguese Empire in the East. The mission returned without an agreement, but diplomatic gifts were exchanged, including an Indian rhinoceros. The shah's ambassador to Bijapur visited Albuquerque inviting him to send back an envoy to Persia. Miguel Ferreira was sent via Ormuz to Tabriz, where he had several interviews with the Shah about common goals on defeating the Mamluk sultan. Having returned with rich presents and an ambassador, on the journey back in March they were met by Albuquerque at Ormuz , where he went to establish his rule.
He had learned that after the Portuguese retreat in , a young king was reigning under the influence of a powerful Persian vizier , Reis Hamed, whom the king greatly feared. At Hormuz, Albuquerque had a parley with the king and asked the vizier to be present.
He then had him immediately stabbed and killed by his entourage, thus "freeing" the dominated king so the island in the Persian Gulf yielded to him without resistance, and remained a vassal state of the Portuguese Empire. Hormuz itself, would not be Persian territory for another century, until a combined British-Persian alliance finally expelled the Portuguese, in In November he decided to return, but during the journey his illness would become increasingly fatal, and would lead to his eventual death in the very harbour of Goa.
Albuquerque's life ended on a bitter note, with a painful and ignominious close. At this time, his political enemies back at the Portuguese court, had planned his demise. They had lost no opportunity in stirring up the jealousy of King Manuel against him, insinuating that Albuquerque intended to strike power in Portuguese India against the king back in Lisbon.
Since at least the beginning of November , Albuquerque had known that he had been replaced in the government of India by one of his enemies, Lopo Soares de Albergaria. Reportedly, he even received a letter from the ambassador of the Persian potentate Shah Ismael, inviting Albuquerque to become a leading lord in Persia.
Albuquerque's illness was reported as early as September While on his return voyage from Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, within eyesight of the harbor of Goa, he got news about a Portuguese fleet arriving from Europe bearing dispatches, announcing that he was to be replaced by his personal foe, the Portuguese Lopo Soares de Albergaria.
In this letter, he petitioned king Manuel, to confer to his natural son all of the high honors and rewards that were justly due to himself. He also wrote in dignified and affectionate terms assuring King Manuel I of his loyalty. The gentiles were reported as saying "It could not be that he was dead, but that God had need of him for some war and had therefore sent for him".
In Portugal, King Manuel's zigzagging policies continued, still trapped by the constraints of real-time medieval communication between Lisbon and India, was unaware that Albuquerque was dead. Hearing rumours that the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt was preparing a magnificent army at Suez to prevent the conquest of Hormuz, he quickly repented to have replaced Albuquerque, and in March urgently wrote to Albergaria to return the command of all operations to Albuquerque, and provide him with resources to face the Egyptian threat.
He organised a new Portuguese navy in Asia, with the orders that Albuquerque, if he was still in India, to be made commander-in-chief against the Sultan of Cairo's armies. Tragically of-course, king Manuel would afterwards learn, that Albuquerque had died many months earlier, and that his reversed decision had been delivered many months too late.
Albuquerque's body was buried in Goa according to his will, in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Serra Our Lady of the Hill , built in thanking for his escape from Kamaran island. Afonso de Albuquerque was a prolific writer, having written numerous letters to the king reporting all kind of matters during his governorship, from minor issues to major strategies. In , his son published a collection his letters under the title Commentarios do Grande Affonso d'Alboquerque. There Albuquerque was described as "a man of middle stature, with a long face, fresh colored, the nose somewhat large.
He was a prudent man, and a Latin scholar, and spoke in elegant phrases; his conversation and writings showed his excellent education. He was of ready words, very authoritative in his commands, very circumspect in his dealings with the Moors, and greatly feared yet greatly loved by all, a quality rarely found united in one captain. He was very valiant and favored by fortune. In , Albuquerque was celebrated by Fernando Pessoa in Mensagem , a symbolist epic.
A variety of mango that he used to bring on his journeys to India has been named in his honour. Numerous homages have been made to Albuquerque. Additionally there is a square carrying his name in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, which also features a bronze statue.
The fabled Spice Islands were always on the imagination of Europe since ancient times. In the 2nd century AD, Malaya was known, by Ptolemy the Greek geographer, who labelled it 'Aurea Chersonesus"; and who said that it was believed the fabled area was rich in an abundance of gold.
Even Indian traders who referred to the East Pacific region, as "Land of Gold" and made regular visits to Malaya in search of the precious metal, tin and sweet scented jungle woods. Albuquerque became the first European to reach the Spice Islands. Upon discovering Malaysia , he proceeded in to conquer Malacca. He effectively found what had always evaded Columbus' grasp - the wealth of the Orient.
The great discovery of Albuquerque would not go unnoticed by the rest of Europe, and it did not take long for Magellan to arrive in the same region only several years later and discover the Philippines for Spain, giving birth to the Papal Treaty of Zaragoza.
Albuquerque's operations sent a voyage pushing further south which made the European discovery of Timor in the far south of Oceania, and the discovery of Papua New Guinea in Through the diplomatic activities of Albuquerque, Portugal opened up for the first time in history, the sea between Europe and China. When different cultures have encountered each other for the first time, there has often been misunderstanding, bigotry, even hostility, and the Portuguese were not alone in this regard.
Eventually, the Portuguese colonized Macau, and established the first European permanent settlement on Chinese soil in history, which served as a permanent colonial base in southern China, and the two empires maintained an exchange in culture and trade that would span for nearly years.
Afonso de Albuquerque had a bastard son with an unknown woman. He legitimized the boy in February Prior to his death, he asked King Manuel I to leave him all his wealth and that he take care of his education. When Albuquerque died, Manuel I renamed the child "Afonso" in his father's memory. Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Afonso de Albuquerque. Edit source History Talk 0. Main article: 5th Portuguese India Armada Albuquerque, Main article: 8th Portuguese India Armada Cunha, Main article: Capture of Ormuz Main article: Portuguese Conquest of Goa Main article: Capture of Malacca Dictionary Of World History 2E.
ISBN Retrieved Bispo, A. I, Fasc. Butt, p. Oxford University p. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press. Archived from the original on 9 May Goldstein Naval Institute Press, ISSN Clough Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
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