rock-onn
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- Joined
- Jul 25, 2016
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The Portuguese in India
In the writings of Marco Polo, 13th century traveler, described India as land of gold and spices. Ever since that the Europe had desired to explore a sea route to India. Many explorers had tried to find it and had failed.One explorer sailed west hoping to reach East since the Earth is round but he had discovered America and he assumed he had discovered India and called them Indians. Ever since that the American Aborigines call themselves Indians. The white people call them Red Indians.
Surprisingly, Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, anchored off the coast of Calicut, present Kerala, in late 15th century. Zamorin, king of Calicut, welcomed him and gave him lot of gifts. King Zamorin lived in a place called Ponani which is my home town. As a successful explorer Vasco Da Gama returned to Portugal. After few years, Cabral, another Portuguese explorer, probably a viceroy, came to Calicut and estabilished a factory there. I guess that they had some hidden agenda to conquer India step by step. Cabral fought with Arab traders and I guess it was to establish their supremacy in sea route. Arabs were major traders for Zamorin and they were good friends. The local people took Portuguese as evil people since they killed Arabs and they plotted against them.They put fire in factory during night and killed 50 Portuguese. In retaliation, Cabral killed many Arabs and bombarded with canon from sea the coasts of Calicut and he killed around 600 men. After this,Zamorin and Portuguese became rivals. The Cabral went to Cochin,present kerala, and had meeting with king of Cochin. Cochin is south to Calicut and their kings were rivals and Cabral took advantage of this rivalry. The king of Cochin gave them some land to Portuguese and that place is called Fort Cochin today. People called it Fort Cochin because Portuguese had built a fort there. It was typical of Portuguese to built Fort where ever they went.
Later, Vasco da Gama returned to Kerala with 15 ships and 800 men. He made a treaty with king of Kannur for favoring trade. Kannur, present kerala, is another kingdom north of Calicut. Vasco Da Gama could speak malayalm, my mother tongue. He demanded Zamorin to expel all muslims from Calicut but our king refused it. So, he bombarded the coasts of Calicut city. He captured many Arabs and local people in their ship and tortured them in brutual manner. He is known for his brutality. Vasco Da Gama died here and buried in Fort Cochin and later his body was taken to Portugal.
Eventually, the Portuguese were successful in ruling the sea route to India. Any foreign ship should buy permit from Portuguese to trade in Kerala. Arabs, Egypts traders paid gold to buy this permit. I guess, this is their first step towards conquering the land. The permit was piece of paper quoting the name of ship and its maximum capacity. The rivalry of Zamorin and Portuguese grew as they had many naval battles. The naval battles were led by naval commander, Kungali Marrakar. He is considered as a hero in our place. The Portuguese explored further north to Kerala and occupied Goa and other small kingdoms there. The Goa became their head quarters as they had no peace in South India because of Zamorin king. In one battle , Kungali Marrakar was caught and they took him to Goa and they might have tortured in ship. He was executed as a criminal there after trial in court. In my opinion, he didn't do any crime because he was just fighting for his king. There is a famous story in our place about how the son of Kungali Marrakar avenged his father. According to story, his son killed the viceroy who killed his father, Kungali Marakkar in a battle but he himself was killed in same battle by gun shot. However, Zamorin king couldn't defeat Portuguese as they had guns and canons. Our people called gun as a device that spits fire.
The Dutch also came to Kerala for trade. The Dutch made treaty with king Zamorin and traded their guns. Zamorin acquired new weapons and went for a naval battle with Portuguese. The People here say that the battle was very furious one as both party had guns and canon. The Portuguese were defeated. Ever since that Portuguese had not come near south India and they eventually pulled off from entire India. The Dutch didn't conquer any kingdom of India and they also slowly pulled off. The people here say that Portuguese came here with swords and cross. The sword refer to soldiers and cross refer to Catholic saints.
The Catholic saints converted many Keralites and Goa people to Catholicism. Today, 15%population of Kerala are Catholic and other states consider our state as a Christian state. Few were married to Portuguese thus giving birth to half Portuguese tribe. Unfortunately, this half breed looks very similar to us but they are taller, stronger, more intelligent,more brutal. These Half Portuguese later were in high demand as assassins since they were too strong to fight with. Today these people are known as Anglo Indians. Portuguese brought many fruits and vegetables to our land. For instance, we call cashew nut as 'Parangi Manga' in our tongue. 'Parangi' means Portuguese in our tongue.'Manga' means fruit. Some even claim that the word mango originated from our word 'manga'. Portuguese architecture was highly influenced in Kerala later.
The Portuguese had impacted India a lot by building many churches, forts, buildings, introducing new fruits and vegetables. Later, British established East India Company in Calcutta and occupied the entire India. However, they didn't conquer Portuguese occupied India like Goa. The Portuguese kingdoms were later occupied by French. Even today, Fort Cochin, Goa is main tourist spot for the white people. The church I attend is in Fort Cochin and I always see some white people roaming around.
In the writings of Marco Polo, 13th century traveler, described India as land of gold and spices. Ever since that the Europe had desired to explore a sea route to India. Many explorers had tried to find it and had failed.One explorer sailed west hoping to reach East since the Earth is round but he had discovered America and he assumed he had discovered India and called them Indians. Ever since that the American Aborigines call themselves Indians. The white people call them Red Indians.
Surprisingly, Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, anchored off the coast of Calicut, present Kerala, in late 15th century. Zamorin, king of Calicut, welcomed him and gave him lot of gifts. King Zamorin lived in a place called Ponani which is my home town. As a successful explorer Vasco Da Gama returned to Portugal. After few years, Cabral, another Portuguese explorer, probably a viceroy, came to Calicut and estabilished a factory there. I guess that they had some hidden agenda to conquer India step by step. Cabral fought with Arab traders and I guess it was to establish their supremacy in sea route. Arabs were major traders for Zamorin and they were good friends. The local people took Portuguese as evil people since they killed Arabs and they plotted against them.They put fire in factory during night and killed 50 Portuguese. In retaliation, Cabral killed many Arabs and bombarded with canon from sea the coasts of Calicut and he killed around 600 men. After this,Zamorin and Portuguese became rivals. The Cabral went to Cochin,present kerala, and had meeting with king of Cochin. Cochin is south to Calicut and their kings were rivals and Cabral took advantage of this rivalry. The king of Cochin gave them some land to Portuguese and that place is called Fort Cochin today. People called it Fort Cochin because Portuguese had built a fort there. It was typical of Portuguese to built Fort where ever they went.
Later, Vasco da Gama returned to Kerala with 15 ships and 800 men. He made a treaty with king of Kannur for favoring trade. Kannur, present kerala, is another kingdom north of Calicut. Vasco Da Gama could speak malayalm, my mother tongue. He demanded Zamorin to expel all muslims from Calicut but our king refused it. So, he bombarded the coasts of Calicut city. He captured many Arabs and local people in their ship and tortured them in brutual manner. He is known for his brutality. Vasco Da Gama died here and buried in Fort Cochin and later his body was taken to Portugal.
Eventually, the Portuguese were successful in ruling the sea route to India. Any foreign ship should buy permit from Portuguese to trade in Kerala. Arabs, Egypts traders paid gold to buy this permit. I guess, this is their first step towards conquering the land. The permit was piece of paper quoting the name of ship and its maximum capacity. The rivalry of Zamorin and Portuguese grew as they had many naval battles. The naval battles were led by naval commander, Kungali Marrakar. He is considered as a hero in our place. The Portuguese explored further north to Kerala and occupied Goa and other small kingdoms there. The Goa became their head quarters as they had no peace in South India because of Zamorin king. In one battle , Kungali Marrakar was caught and they took him to Goa and they might have tortured in ship. He was executed as a criminal there after trial in court. In my opinion, he didn't do any crime because he was just fighting for his king. There is a famous story in our place about how the son of Kungali Marrakar avenged his father. According to story, his son killed the viceroy who killed his father, Kungali Marakkar in a battle but he himself was killed in same battle by gun shot. However, Zamorin king couldn't defeat Portuguese as they had guns and canons. Our people called gun as a device that spits fire.
The Dutch also came to Kerala for trade. The Dutch made treaty with king Zamorin and traded their guns. Zamorin acquired new weapons and went for a naval battle with Portuguese. The People here say that the battle was very furious one as both party had guns and canon. The Portuguese were defeated. Ever since that Portuguese had not come near south India and they eventually pulled off from entire India. The Dutch didn't conquer any kingdom of India and they also slowly pulled off. The people here say that Portuguese came here with swords and cross. The sword refer to soldiers and cross refer to Catholic saints.
The Catholic saints converted many Keralites and Goa people to Catholicism. Today, 15%population of Kerala are Catholic and other states consider our state as a Christian state. Few were married to Portuguese thus giving birth to half Portuguese tribe. Unfortunately, this half breed looks very similar to us but they are taller, stronger, more intelligent,more brutal. These Half Portuguese later were in high demand as assassins since they were too strong to fight with. Today these people are known as Anglo Indians. Portuguese brought many fruits and vegetables to our land. For instance, we call cashew nut as 'Parangi Manga' in our tongue. 'Parangi' means Portuguese in our tongue.'Manga' means fruit. Some even claim that the word mango originated from our word 'manga'. Portuguese architecture was highly influenced in Kerala later.
The Portuguese had impacted India a lot by building many churches, forts, buildings, introducing new fruits and vegetables. Later, British established East India Company in Calcutta and occupied the entire India. However, they didn't conquer Portuguese occupied India like Goa. The Portuguese kingdoms were later occupied by French. Even today, Fort Cochin, Goa is main tourist spot for the white people. The church I attend is in Fort Cochin and I always see some white people roaming around.
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