The arrival of the Portuguese on the Malabar Coast constituted an important epoch in the history of India and other Oriental nations. Following that event, European commercial, economic and political interests found their way to the different countries of the East, subordinating their institutions, ideas, economy, culture, political systems and practices, in short, the whole way of life of the peoples, to the needs and claims of each maritime power.
The European epoch, inaugurated by Vasco Gama, thus brought about a transformation in the state system, economy and social order of Asian nations. This was made possible by the thrust of maritime power over the landmasses, the imposition of a commercial economy over a simple, primitive economy based on agricultural production and internal trade and active interposition of imperialism. Following the Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, English and French trading companies came to India to trade in spices.
They found South India the convenient ground to concentrate their early commercial activities, as it was there, and nowhere else in India that the products they wanted to procure in abundance were available. When the original desire for the monopoly of spice trade gave place to the necessity of securing textiles, tea and other commodities, and later to finding markets for European manufactures, and again to searching avenues for investment of capital, their attention turned to other places in India and Asia.
It is important to note that at all these levels of commercial activity these European traders consciously played a political role also by interfering in the internal affairs of the princely states. When we study the history of the Portuguese, we find that their connection with India, at least till they consolidated their power and remained within the limits of Goa, was at best, a series of episodes, often unconnected with the preceding one.
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As a result, they could not contribute anything in the spheres of administration, law or other political institutions. Their influence could not have been abiding because their rule, if any, did not ever extend a day’s march from their ships. With the departure of their ships disappeared their trading stations and spheres of influence. What stayed back when the Portuguese left Malabar Coast, was the bitter memories of their cruelty, rapacity and dissimulation and a disorganized religious community of Latin Christians.
First Portuguese Sailor to Malabar:
The first Portuguese adventurer to land in India was Joao Peres de Covilhao in 1487, who was commissioned by Dom Joao II, the king of Portugal, to discover the land of Prester John and the territory whence the spiceries were procured.
He reached Cannonade on the Malabar Coast, in a Moorish ship and later Calicut where he collected details of ginger, pepper and cinnamon. On his v/ay back he stayed at Goa, further at Ormuz and reached Cairo. It was he who suggested in his report to the King that the Portuguese ships trading with Guinea could as well extend their journey along the coast of Sofia to reach Eastern Seas and probably to touch the port of Calicut.