30 Topics.
0 of 22 Concepts Done
What to Study: Understand the political, economic and commercial reasons that pushed Europe to look for a sea route. Be clear about who controlled the old routes and what changed in 1453. Why could Venice and Genoa not lead the search, and who helped Portugal and Spain instead?
What to Study: Why is Prince Henry of Portugal called the 'Navigator'? Remember what the papal bull allowed him to do. Understand what the Treaty of Tordesillas settled between Portugal and Spain, and why it mattered for voyages towards India.
What to Study: What did Bartholomew Dias achieve? In which year did his voyage begin, and in which year did he round the Cape? Know when the expedition for India finally sailed and in which month and year it reached India.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2003UPSC 2007
What to Study: In what order did the Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and Danes reach India? Remember the sequence. Why does the order of the Dutch and the English change, depending on whether we count the year each company was formed or the year it began trading in India?
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2021
What to Study: Know when and where Vasco Da Gama landed, how many ships he had, and how the Zamorin received him. Why did the Zamorin welcome him, and why were Arab traders uneasy? Understand what the profit on pepper meant for other European merchants.
What to Study: How did the Portuguese way of trading differ from the old Indian Ocean system? Understand the unwritten rules earlier traders followed and what the Portuguese wanted instead. You should be able to explain their commercial and religious aims, including the hope of finding Prester John.
What to Study: What did Cabral do at Calicut in 1500, and with whom did he make treaties? Know how Vasco Da Gama's second voyage broke relations with the Zamorin. Which trading centres did the Portuguese then build up, and how did they get permission to fortify them?
What to Study: Remember when Francisco De Almeida was appointed, for how long, and his instructions (forts and Muslim trade). Who defeated the Portuguese at Chaul in 1508, and how did Almeida answer that defeat? Understand what the Blue Water Policy (cartaze system) meant.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2022
What to Study: Why do historians treat Albuquerque as the real founder of Portuguese power in the East? Understand how he controlled the Indian Ocean (bases, permit system, ship-building centres). Remember what he took in 1510 and from whom. Also know his policies on sati, marriage with local women, and Muslims.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2012
What to Study: Which new crops did the Portuguese settlers introduce in India? Understand how the settlers lived: what roles they took in villages and cities, and why many came to see India as their home.
What to Study: Remember when Nino da Cunha moved the Portuguese headquarters, and from where to where. Understand how Bahadur Shah of Gujarat came to give Bassein to the Portuguese, what base at Diu he promised them, why relations between them broke down, and how he died in 1537. Where did Da Cunha try to build Portuguese influence in Bengal?
What to Study: Understand the conditions that helped the Portuguese: in India (the rulers and their navies), in Asia (China and the Arab traders), and on their own ships.
What to Study: Remember where the Portuguese held land on the west coast, in the south and on the east coast, and their settlement in Bengal. Understand their treaties with the Deccan sultans and their part in balance-of-power wars. In what sense were they the first to come and last to leave, and when did that end?
What to Study: Learn the main offices of Portuguese rule: the viceroy and his term, the Vedor da Fazenda and what he looked after, and the captains and factors of the fortresses.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2021
What to Study: How did the Portuguese treat Muslims and Hindus at first? What changed for Hindus after the Inquisition was introduced in Goa? Understand why the Portuguese were hostile to Muslims.
What to Study: Learn how the Jesuits reached Akbar's court: who invited them, who led the first mission, and where they were received. Know who led the third mission. How did Jahangir's attitude to the Jesuits change, and why did the hope of converting the Mughal court fail?
What to Study: How did the Portuguese try to keep the English away from Jahangir? Remember Hawkins's rank at court. Why did the English naval success of 1612 impress Jahangir? Understand how Portuguese piracy in 1613 and later events under Shah Jahan ended their good relations with the Mughals.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1995
What to Study: Why did Shah Jahan move against the Portuguese at Hooghly? Understand how they made money there (salt, customs, tobacco duty, slave trade). Remember the 1632 siege, the Bengal governor who led it, and how it ended.
What to Study: Explain why Portuguese power declined, sorting the causes into those in India and those in Europe. What did the Marathas take from them in 1739? Who made the remark about the sword and the crucifix, and what did it mean?
What to Study: Remember the key dates of Portuguese rise and fall: the first forts at Cochin and Cannanore, the capture of Goa, Diu and Daman, and the losses to the Dutch and English. What happened to Goa in 1683?
What to Study: Understand what the Portuguese changed in naval and military matters: sea power, the monopoly backed by cannon, and ship design and organisation. Which later armies adopted the Portuguese system of drilled infantry?
What to Study: Which arts did the Portuguese missionaries and the Church support? Remember Goa's famous metalwork and what the interiors of Portuguese churches were like.