THE WEST APPROACHES THE EAST

On 17 May 1498 the three small ships of Vasco da Gama cast anchor off a small village about eight miles (13 km) north of Calicut on the south-west coast of India. On 21 April 1526 Bābur the Tīmūrid at the first battle of Pānīpat overthrew the armies of Ibrāhīm Shāh Lodī, the Afghan ruler of Delhi, and brought that Muslim kingdom to an end. These two events changed the face of the world, and left an indelible impress on the destinies of India.

The expansion of Portugal, both to Asia and the East and to America and the West, can be summed up under the headings Crusade, Curiosity, Commerce, Conversion, Conquest and Colonisation, in that order. Though the exploits of many outstanding men have to be recorded in this chronicle, all these facets of late medieval and early renaissance thought combine in the character of one great central figure, Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460), the third son of King John I.

The age of the great crusades in the Levant was over. But the idea of a continuing crusade against the Muslim was still in the minds of many men. The first assault, made to give employment to unemployed soldiers, to satisfy the chivalrous ideas of the king's sons, to check piracy, and to continue the crusade against the Muslims, resulted in the capture of Ceuta on 21 August 1415.