•

pepper, from preciosity to necessity

•

the way we use pepper today:

•

from berry, harvested green

•

left to ferment to allow the skin to flake off, so the insides can darken and shrivel

•

crucial for masalas in India and grilled meats in the Arab world, and Romans loved their pepper

•

Vasco da Gama (1469-1524)

•

Portuguese explorer

•

commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India

•

one of the most successful explorers

•

first European to reach India by sea

•

1480 exploring coast of Africa

•

lured westward and southward in pursuit of African gold

•

1497 first to skirt the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Storms, later called Cape of Good Hope)

•

they were avoiding the Muslim blockade of North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean

•

from the beginning played by his own rules

•

in Mozambique, attacked ships which contained supplies that would nourish his crew

•

entered Mombasa, Kenya, got into a shootout

•

then into Malindi, Kenya and did the same thing

•

what did he want as he made his way up the coast of Africa?

•

he needed help to get to India

•

he had figured out that he had crossed into the Indian ocean which no one before him had done

•

he found he had "gotten in through the back door" so to say

•

now he needed some local expertise to navigate to India

•

but he had nothing to offer, only his brute strength

•

Ahman Ibn Majid (1421-1500)

•

raised with a family famous for seafaring

•

became famous in the West as the navigator who helped Vasco da Gama find his way from Africa to India

•

author of nearly forty works of poetry and prose

•

some called him a Christian, some a Muslim, some a Gujarati (Indian ethnic group)

•

important role as a broker

•

enabled Europeans to navigate

•

similar to Doña Marina for Cortez

•

King Zamorin

•

allowed da Gama to take pepper and drugs on board

•

in Portugal, these goods were later computed at sixty times the cost of the entire expedition

•

1498 took da Gama 23 days to cross the Indian Ocean

•

entered port of Calicut

•

three beaten up vessels, rather small, but different to vessels in India

•

heavy, rounded plank hulls

•

high super-structures, three mastered and square rigs

•

cannons protruding

•

he wanted something lucrative, his journey had to pay off

•

he knew that that Calicut was a great pepper entrepôt

•

all he had to offer were some hats, metal cookware, old coats, butter, honey, not much for a great king, courtiers laughed at him

•

eventually forged a contract

•

leaving, didn't pay exit tax, and took four hostages from Calicut in case they would be pursued

•

Calicut glad to be rid of this impoverish, Portuguese bully

•

da Gama had no pilot, headed into monsoons, one ship lost

•

slinked back into Lisbon, only two vessels

•

this cargo of pepper issued a rip tide of news throughout Europe

•

can explain the long-term decline of the Venetian economy, as it slowly lost its special, strategic location in the Mediterranean

•

Arab merchants in Alexandria also worried about being circumnavigated

•

1490s: exploration, trade and religion became intimately entwined

•

1496: King of Portugal died

•

Manuel I of Portugal (1469-1521)

•

1495-1521 reigned

•

fervent believer that there was something redemptive in what Iberians were doing in their explorations and imagined himself the last world emperor fighting a crusade against the Antichrist

•

prone to the same kind of fantasies that Isabelle had with Columbus

•

Queen Isabella of Portugal (1451-1503)

•

husband Ferdinand II of Aragon

•

brought stability to kingdoms of Portugal and Spain