Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India on May 20 1498, opening the sea route to the East. Da Gama departed from Lisbon, Portugal, on July 8, 1497, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and up the east coast of Africa where he hired a pilot in Malindi to help him cross the Indian Ocean. He arrived at Calicut where he erected a padrão (stone pillar) to prove he had reached India.
His voyage proved the sea route to India was viable and profitable, paving the way for Portuguese dominance in Asian trade and for a new era of European colonization in the East.
