There is an apocryphal tale of how the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama subdued a potential mutiny amongst his crew. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of southern Africa in 1497, the realisation of reaching India from Europe via a sea route was close. Yet, assailed by Muslim traders and buffeted by fierce weather, da Gama’s men wished to turn for home. In an act of righteous grandeur, the captain dispensed with the ship’s instruments and navigational maps overboard, imploring his men to trust in God, whose helmsman he claimed to be. A few months later they made landfall in Calicut and the history of the world changed.
The Portuguese sea route to India (the Carreira da India) would usher in an era of European colonialism in the east. Trade with sultans and emirs would mature into military conquest and subordination, the colossal voyages (giant ships travelling six months each way) awaited with eager anticipation by the rulers in Lisbon and continental merchants. Having seen Christopher Columbus claim the New World for Spain in his attempts to find a sea route to the ‘Indies’, da Gama had charted a course for the smaller Iberian power to create the first global empire.
Da Gama’s voyage was the culmination of over a century of progressive exploration and technological improvement. After Gil Eannes rounded the infamously treacherous Cape Bojador on the West Saharan coast in 1434 (Parry, p.146), subsequent Portuguese navigators charted increasingly southerly courses towards the base of the African continent, a region still shrouded in mystery. In early 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas (the Cape of the Needles), breaching the Atlantic-Indian Ocean divide. He initially named Africa’s southern promontory the Stormy Cape, only for Portuguese King Joao II to rename it the Cape of Good Hope, ‘because it promised the discovery of India, so long desired and sought for over so many years’ (Crowley pp. 31-33).
Until the construction of the Suez Canal in the 1860s – connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea – maritime traffic between Europe and the East passed around the Cape of Good Hope. Fortunes soared and foundered on the treacherous passage. And yet despite Suez and the rise in long-distance air and rail freight, this lengthy southern route is still plied. Indeed, it is increasingly so due to the political instability of the Middle East.
Houthi rebels continue to attack commercial shipping in the Red Sea with a combination of missiles and drones. Despite retaliatory strikes by American and British forces, the Yemeni group appears undeterred and their Iranian patrons either unwilling or unable to rein them in. Consequently, commercial shipping lines are taking the almost unthinkable move of rolling back the clock a century-and-a-half and committing more cargo to the journey around the Cape of Good Hope.
Danish shipping giant Maersk has ruled out using the Red Sea route for the remainder of 2024. It is sending more ships southwards at great cost, with a 40% fuel increase required both due to the greater distance and speeds needed to get cargo to and from eastern ports in a commercially viable timeframe. The economic costs get passed on to consumers, whilst the environmental costs from increased fuel consumption are at this stage incalculable.
It is a reminder that our reliance on maritime trade networks is still very much comparable to bygone eras. Crucial chokepoints in shipping routes are blatantly evident, as demonstrated by the chaos caused when the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal in 2021 and closed the waterway for 6 days. The Strait of Malacca, meanwhile, is the most critical shipping route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and yet is only 40 miles wide at its narrowest point. Concerns regarding China’s intentions in the South China Sea give cause to fear a potential closure of this waterway, with alternative routes few and far between.
The pioneers of the 15th and 16th century made international trade possible. And yet despite substantial technological advancement, our desire for global goods remains undimmed and our reliance on historic transport routes amazingly high. The opportunity such a reliance gives nefarious state actors, rebels and terrorist groups is clear to see. Without a concerted transnational effort, the Carreira da India will live on beyond the 21st century.
Additional reading
Crowley, R. Conquerors: How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire (2015)
Parry, J. H. The Age of Reconnaissance (1963)
History's Shadow 