On May 20, 1498, Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama and his crew landed at Calicut, India. They were the first Europeans ever to set foot in India after an ocean trip. They arrived safely after an unbelievably long voyage across the Atlantic and Indian oceans lasting eleven and a half months. After almost reaching the coast of Brazil, da Gama navigated his way back to Africa, landing 130 miles from his intended destination, the Cape of Good Hope. Through this Cape, he finally reach Calicut.

This journey epitomized the cutting- edge techniques in water navigation developed by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. Da Gama had been able to choose a route that avoided coastal currents to take advantage of the westerly gales of the south Atlantic as they made their way back toward Africa. Da Gama achieved this feat by expertly executing navigational techniques with the instruments of the period. Portugal's maritime innovations and discoveries led to it becoming one of the first multicontinental empires during the Age of Discoveries from 1400 to 1600. Portugal became the first country in Western Europe to trade directly with India, Malay and the West Indies by sailing vessels. The subsequent Portuguese empire covered Brazil and parts of Africa and South, Southeast and East Asia— as far as Nagasaki and East Timor. Portugal charted more of Africa and the Americas than any of its contemporaries.

Along with the increased trade in West Africa, the Portuguese established colonies in Madeira in 1419 and Azores in 1427, two islands far into the Atlantic off the Iberian coast. The Portuguese instituted sugar plantations on Madeira and Azores. The sugar trade proved to be immensely lucrative in Europe, financially sustaining their exploration of the Atlantic and other potential oceanic trade routes. They were the first of the European states to enslave African natives whom they encountered on their voyages, exploiting enormous profit both from the trade of the slaves and from the plantations on which the slaves worked. Portugal was also the first country to establish a sea route around the Cape of Africa to Malacca, Goa and Bombay. In doing so, the Portuguese were able to monopolize the thriving Eastern spice trade, replacing the Venetians, who had depended on a complicated network of overland routes and middlemen to procure spices in the Mediterranean.