Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama

by Nigel Cliff

Historian Nigel Cliff delivers a sweeping, radical reinterpretation of Vasco da Gama's pioneering voyages, revealing their significance as a decisive turning point in the struggle between Christianity and Islam--a series of events which forever altered the relationship between East and West. Perfect for readers of "Endurance" "Shackleton's"" Incredible Voyage," "Galileo's Daughter," " "and "Atlantic," " "this first-ever complete account of da Gama's voyages includes new information from the recently discovered diaries of his sailors and an extraordinary series of letters between da Gama and the Zamorin, a king of modern-day Kerala, India. Cliff, the author of "The Shakespeare Riots," draws upon his own travels in da Gama's footsteps to add detail, authenticity, and a contemporary perspective to this riveting, one-of-a-kind historical epic.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Portugal, European History, Travel, World History

560 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2011

About the author

Nigel Cliff is a British historian, biographer, critic and translator. He specialists in narrative nonfiction, especially in the fields of cultural history and the history of exploration.

Reviews

[Gary Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy War is a great book. It's an exciting, intiguing historical novel but is based on historically researched facts.

It's core thesis was new to me as one trained in history at University. It sheds powerful light on the historicity of supremicist Islam's current revival of their 1,400 year old attempt to dominate the West.

It also is filled with brief, fascinating snipets of information about medieval culture, sailing and navigation, diplomatic protocol at the time, plus much more that adds to the story. It even includes a quote about spice usage from a popular 'Sex Manual" in Medieval times.

What Nigel Cliff shares you never learned in high school history classes.

The thesis of his book is shared well by Mr. Cliff, English author, journalist, and historian on his Blog. There he writes:

"In my book, I argue that the Crusading mentality was indeed an essential spur to the Age of Discovery. It earned the Portuguese papal backing, which they took as legal confirmation of their right to conquer and subdue any non-Christians they encountered. It gave them a unifying story and purpose that sustained the explorations for more than a century.

"It silenced doubters: Faced with compelling arguments about the recklessness of their grand schemes, Portugal’s rulers simply replied that they were doing God’s will. It fed the millenarian fantasies of successive kings, who imagined themselves as the prophesied figures who would usher in a global Christian age. And it inspired many individual acts of heroism – and barbarity.

"The fifteenth century was a time of failed Crusades; what marked out the Portuguese was that they saw a way to change the rules of engagement, and acted on it."

Blessings all!

GaryFPatton
(June 15, 2012 © gfp '42™)

[Geoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nigel Cliff has written a very readable and extremely interesting history of Vasco da Gama's voyages to India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa. Rather than launching straight into a biography of da Gama or starting with his first voyage, Cliff spends a good few chapters narrating a history of the conflict between Christians and Muslims, and of Portugal, the country from which da Gama sailed and which led the initial search for a sea passage to the East.

Only once Cliff has provided this back-story does he focus on da Gama and his epic voyages of discovery, and later of destruction and conquest. Cliff doesn't shy away from describing the cruelty of the Westerner colonists towards the Indian and African native peoples but equally he points out that many of the petty kings and warlords in the region were just as brutal. Cliff gives us a picture of the region as being like an early 'Wild West' with life being very uncertain and slavery and death being commonplace.

Overall this is an excellent book that I'd recommend to anyone with an interest in history.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nigel Cliff provides a nicely written examination of "how Vasco da Gama's epic voyages turned the tide in a centuries-old clash of civilizations". The book is fairly fast paced. Cliff's narrative provides a broad overview of the conflict between Christianity and Islam, and then launches into Vasco da Gama's voyages around Africa into the Indian Ocean and how these influenced future crusades, future relationships between "East" and "West", as well as the culture and politics of various states. Cliff argues (successfully, in my opinion) that the "Crusading mentality was an essential spur to the Age of Discovery. It earned the Portuguese papal backing, which they took as legal confirmation of their right to conquer and subdue any non-Christians they encountered. It gave them a unifying story and purpose that sustained the explorations for more than a century. [...] The fifteenth century was a time of failed Crusades; what marked out the Portuguese was that they saw a way to change the rules of engagement, and acted on it". An interesting account of Vasco da Gama's voyages within the context of the crusades.

NOTE : Some of the contents of this book (The Last Crusade) and Conquerors by Roger Crowley overlap. But the focus of the two books are different. Conquerors focuses on Portuguese empire building in the Indian Ocean, while the Last Crusade focuses on fitting the new Portuguese exploratory voyages into a larger picture. I found these books to complement each other, rather than merely repeating each other.

[Frank R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of Vasco de Gama's trailblazing voyages around the tip of Africa and on to India. About the same time as Columbus, Gama's exploits were (at the time) considered more important, as here was a proven path to India, while it was yet unclear what exactly Columbus had found. Within 20 years of Gama's voyage, Portugal had broken the Muslim monopoly on trade with the exotic East, and had established a maritime empire along the coasts of Africa, Asia, and the East Indies. Within 150 years the Dutch and English would come and take this empire, but the pioneering work was done by Portugal. A stirring tale of adventure, danger, diplomacy and battle. And a vivid view of the role faith played.

Vasco de Gama himself comes off as a man of legendary skill and attributes. My favorite anecdote: the Portuguese are caught in an incredible storm in the Indian Ocean, a storm that some surmise to have been caused by an underwater earthquake. With the sea rocking and pitching, Gama calls to his crew: "Courage, friends! The sea itself trembles at our presence!"

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting as it gives a thorough exposition to Vasco da Gama history changing expedition, though with a great preview putting things in context and then it follows up with what happened later, but the focus is on da Gama and here the book differs from others who either focus on the whole Portuguese maritime empire or only on the da Gama expedition per se

Definitely recommended

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aa fascinating story of how the Portuguese broke the Muslim stranglehold on the spice trade through luck, dogmatism and psychotic behaviour. And then lost it all through those same attributes. Entertaining, informative and if your Portuguese a little sad.

[Marie Fouhey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book wasn't the straight-forward recounting of da Gama's life and voyages that I expected. Instead the author starts out with the history of Islam and its conquest of much of the globe before the ruling muslims were driven out of Europe. He ties da Gama's voyages to India into the european desire to rid Jerusalem of muslims. Indeed, da Gama tried to get the Indian potentates with whom he wanted to trade, to rid their domains of the muslims who lived and traded there. When they wouldn't da Gama attacked both the Indians and the muslim trading ships. The voyages were an insane mixture of religion, trade, piracy and military actions. The portugese even carried the Inquisition to India. The author ends with the opinion that the current battles between the west and al quaeda are a contiuation, or perhaps a revival, of emnities that first surfaced 500 years ago, and that bloodshed has been copious on both sides.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most interesting and enjoyable history books I've read for some time. Nigel Cliff writes solidly researched intelligent history that is as engaging as a good novel. For anyone with an interest in the Age of Exploration or the interaction between the muslim and christain worlds, this will be an enjoyable and fascinating read. As well as telling the story it has extensive notes on the sources of the information for anyone who wants to dig more deeply into any part of its contents. Interestingly my copy had no numbers in the text to link it to the notes, but I assume this is a printing error as the notes themselves are numbered.

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one to keep on the bookshelf for reference.

There's more to Vasco da Gama and his voyages than I thought.

What is weird is that the version I read does not have the silly statement "turned the tide" in its sub-title and yet it looks exactly like the book cover displayed on Goodreads.

Anyway, Vasco da Gama found his way to India, not once but twice, covering tens of thousands of miles in the process. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope (and Cape Agulhas) Vasco progressed up the Swahili Coast seeking knowledge about the way to India. Eventually, he found a pilot who took him to the Indian coast in particular to Calicut where Vasco stood his ground and had to defend his ships and sailors on a number of occasions. The detail of these escapades is amazing and I felt I was right there with the Portuguese. In the end they faced greater danger from illnesses such as scurvy than from the pirates of the Indian Ocean.

Of course, there were people from other cultures in India including a man from Tunis who became an important mediator between the Portuguese and the Indian people of the coast.

[JEAN-PHILIPPE PEROL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro bem escrito e muito documento. Mais que pelos fatos, a maior parte ja conhecidos, o trabalho do Nigel Cliff ajuda muito a entender a epopeia desse grande descubridor porque ele destaca muito bem dois pontos: o primeiro é que a historia do Vasco de Gama, como tambem do Cristovo Colombo, so pode ser entendidas quando colocadas na sequencia das cruzadas e da reconquista nao so iberica mas de todo o mundo cristao virado para Jerusalem. O segundo é que as riquezas esperadas e achadas na Asia eram de fato fabulosas, e que pelo menos no seculo XVI a descuberta da America nao era em nada comparavel em termo de lucro possiveis.
Sem nada esconder das forças, das fraquezas e mesmo da crueldade do seu heroi, o Nigel ajuda, com seriedade e as vezes com humor, a conhecer melhor o outro grande descubridor.

[Henrik Lif · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are a historian, this might perhaps be interesting, but for the rest of us it gets you nowhere. Too much facts and too little story. Gave up after 70 pages or so.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a North American, I’d read a lot on Columbus and the Columbian exchange that the Spanish explorations kickstarted. But I’d never read much on its Eastern counterpart – the Portuguese explorations around Africa, culminating in Vasco de Gama reaching India. This book filled in all those details, and what a remarkable story it is – every bit as gripping in terms of a pure exploration and adventure narrative, and (for the first few hundred years at least) probably a more momentous event in world history than Columbus’ voyages. Unfortunately, the Portuguese were, if anything, more prone to violence and atrocities than the Spanish, and their toehold in the Indian Ocean was established by bloodshed. This book is excellent on big history, placing Portuguese exploration in the longer view of the thousand-year conflict between Christianity and Islam that preceded the Age of Discovery. Highly recommended.

[BJ Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nigel Cliff presents a new look on the beginnings of the age of discovery with a particular emphasis on the journeys of Vasco da Gama. He begins with an overview of the reconquista and the creation of Portugal and then focus on the religious fervor of Christian vs Muslim as the primary motivator that spurred Europe into global dominance.
While his history is excellent, well researched and yet easily readable, I believe he has placed far too much emphasis on the religious factor. The traditional (and I believe correct view) was that Portugal and Spain desired to find the source for the spice trade rather than continue to be dependent on the Istanbul/Egypt/Venice monopoly. Religion was certainly a motivator on both sides for many of the local conflicts, misunderstandings, and even atrocities that occurred on both sides. However this was mainly an economic conflict that forever shifted the balance of power away from the Eastern Mediterranean center since Constantine towards Western Europe.
While the book is definitely worth reading there is not nearly enough validity to convince any unbiased viewer of Cliff's primary premise that Portugal was embarking on a "Crusade".

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 2011 study of the start of the Age of Discovery, which in turn set off the efflorescence of Renaissance Europe, is a serious examination not just of the voyages and victories of the great Vasco da Gama, who found a sea route to the famed Indies, bypassing the Turks and Arabs, but also of Portugal and her maritime supremacy over all the oceans, and her pioneering discoveries, inventions and conquests.

One of its most appealing features is the way it is written, so that you feel that you are reading a thriller, not a dry as dust history.

Vasco da Gama came with two clear mandates: the first from King Manuel I of Portugal, which had repercussions beyond imagination, and consequences beyond repair. His mandate from Manuel was to find a sea route to India, and to look for the mysterious Christian King of the East, Prester John, and to come back laden with spices; the second was a mission from the Pope was to start another Crusade and eliminate every Moor or Muslim he found.

Cliff gives a history of three important events in the middle ages: the first being the Crusades, at the whim of a Pope or a king. The point of the Crusades was to recover the Holy Land and massacre Muslim and Jew, and when this was found to be impracticable, Christian turned upon Christian in the infamous fourth crusade. A total of 9 crusades took place, spread over 200 years, from 1095 to 1291, with the fall of the last Christian stronghold at Acre.

The second important event was the rise of Prince Henry of Portugal, called the Navigator, who established Portugal as a maritime power, encouraged voyages of discovery, set up a naval academy, designed the powerful but light new ship known as the caravel, and inaugurated the Age of Discovery with a flourish.

The third event, also under Prince Henry, was the quest in search of Prester John, leading to the exploration of subSaharan Africa, and building a library of that most valuable science, cartography, which had existed before mostly as seas abounding in monsters. The Greeks were the earliest map makers, but they limited themselves to the areas surrounding the Mediterranean.The Romans rarely used the seas, preferring conquest by overland routes. Not that they were great explorers, either. Henry understood the value of charts and maps, and hoarded them, keeping them in utmost secrecy, as of any state policy. Henry’s contributions were the compass, the caravel and the then available crude charts, together with the long established (and only) practice at sea, navigation by the stars, all of which da Gama made full use of.

Unfortunately da Gama did not come on a peaceable mission: with him, he brought first the Crusades, intending to drive out Muslim traders, then brought war upon Indian kingdoms who did not enjoy being told to expel and exile their traditional and commercially valuable trading partners, the Arabs, who came punctually every year with the rains to buy and barter. And finally da Gama brought in the Inquisition, the first autos-da-fé, together with public hangings and beheadings. When he asked to meet the ruler of Calicut, where he first made land on Indian shores, da Gama brought cheap trinkets sold in the Lisbon markets to offer as official gifts to a king covered in gold and jewels.

Amazingly, a group of Indian Christians, hearing of the strangers, did come to meet da Gama, saying they were from farther north along the same coast. These were the descendants of the first Indians converted by the martyr St Thomas (Doubting Thomas, one of the Apostles) when the Apostle was sent out on his missionary expedition. They were from Goa, and were Eastern Syriac Christians, not Catholics. Many were converted to Catholicism, a few by Vasco da Gama, but mostly by the mass conversions to Catholicism held by Afonso de Albuquerque about ten years later, aided by an efficient Inquisition.

The Portuguese were successful in bringing Catholicism to large numbers of the local people, but they were never successful traders, administrators or rulers, because of their open cruelties. The French and English were far more successful for a longer period, because they came first as merchants, and gradually began influencing local politics, and becoming important enough to build up an army. Nevertheless, in one of those ironies of history, the Portuguese were the first Westerners to land in India in 1498, and the last to leave, in 1961.

In the rest of his history, Cliff discusses the major voyages of Bartolomeu Dias, who first sailed round the Cape of Good Hope (the Cape of Storms) and explored parts of South Africa, but who was forced to make a quick getaway when the natives proved to be less than hospitable. Had it not been for Dias, who charted wind patterns as well, Vasco da Gama's discovery of India could never have been accomplished.

Portugal’s other great contribution to Western hegemony was the discovery of the eastern coast of Brazil, made by Pedro Alvarez Cabral in 1500. Enroute to India, his ship veered west, and made landfall near the modern port of Porto Seguro. Finding it lay within Portugal’s power under the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, Cabral promptly claimed it for Portugal. Cabral’s personal achievement was that he was the first man to have landed successfully on all four continents known at that time – Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

The book ends with the rise (and decline) of Portugal as a colonial power in Africa, Asia and Brazil.

[Jerry-Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have all read about Vasco Da Gama and his discovery of the route around Africa and the passage to India. This is the story of that discovery. It is quite amazing that the tiny country of Portugal was able to accomplish this feat. Portugal was fortunate to have the location, the leaders such as Prince Henry the Navigator, and intrepid explorers like Vasco Da Gama. It was almost comical that the Portuguese thought the Hindu people were a strange form of Christianity. This book is based largely on a book by an anonymous sailor whom the author calls the "Chronicler" of the voyage. The title of the book refers to the fact the Portuguese upended the Muslim spice trade which was conducted through the Red Sea. The Portuguese were also able to wrest the spice trade from the Muslims in a series of naval battles. Additionally, the Kings of Portugal wanted to finish off the Crusades by capturing Jerusalem. They were never able to win control of the Red Sea and accomplish this feat. They were able to dominate the spice trade and establish permanent trading stations such as Goa. But, as the author points out it all started with Vasco Da Gama.

[GazMeti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a fascinating and fact-filled account of Vasco da Gama's epic voyage to India. It is well written and generally easy to read, making the complex story of this historic journey accessible to a wide audience. I would rate it 4.5 out of 5; however, since Goodreads allows only whole numbers, I had to settle for 4 stars.

There are two drawbacks worth mentioning. First, the initial part of the book delves deeply into the Crusades. While informative, this section can feel overly detailed, especially for readers already familiar with the topic. It doesn't tie directly into the main narrative, so one could easily skip it without missing much. Second, the author occasionally uses unnecessarily complex words that could have been replaced with simpler alternatives, which slightly disrupts the flow.

Overall, this is an excellent book, particularly for readers like myself who enjoy this genre. It’s a great read and a valuable addition to anyone interested in maritime exploration and world history.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Crusade details the history of Vasco da Gama’s voyage as the first known fleet around the southern tip of Africa and his discovery of a sea route to India from Europe. It highlights how this voyage to find a sea route to India was motivated by the passionate desire to undermine Islamic kingdoms and to monopolize the riches of the spice trade for themselves.

Before getting to da Gama’s discovery, the book first reviews the history of the rise of Islam, Islamic rule in Iberia, the Crusades, Christians driving Muslims out of Iberia, Portugal’s conquest of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast, the exploration of the west coast of Africa led by Henry the Navigator - where the Portuguese began the Atlantic slave trade, and then the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans.

For context of da Gama’s voyage, it is important to understand that there was great demand in Europe for spices and other products from the east. Christian Europe resented that Muslims were the middle men preventing direct trade of these eastern products and believed that they were jacking up the prices. So many Europeans dreamed of sailing to India as an end-around of the Muslim middle men, causing economic devastation to the Islamic kingdoms.

At the end of the 15th century, Portugal and Spain were in a competition to discover new lands and a sea route to India and the spice islands. To avoid conflict, the Pope divided the world between them along a longitudinal line that later was discovered to run through Brazil (after Columbus “discovered” the Americas).

Vasco da Gama set sail in 1497 to find a sea route around Africa to India and to find the mythic Prester John (a Christian king in Africa that was based on historical memory of the existence of Ethiopia). Europeans long dreamed of creating an alliance with Prester John to battle Muslims and retake Jerusalem from the Muslims.

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, da Gama’s fleet had adventures (and conflicts) along the east coast of Africa and then reached Calicut, India. They met the Calicut king who gave them a warm welcome at first, but then turned sour when the king was unimpressed by their gifts and lack of gold.

The Portuguese had assumed there were Christians in India and mistook the Hindus as odd Christians. They believed these “Christians” would be overjoyed to be united with western Christians and would send their Muslim allies packing. They also believed that the Indians were simple people who would sell their valuable goods cheap. Both assumptions proved to be wrong.

Da Gama’s fleet returned to Portugal in July of 1499. Of the 170 people who had set sail, only 55 made it back.

A subsequent voyage by Pedro Alvares Cabral, which set sail in 1500 with 13 ships, went off track and discovered Brazil. They eventually made it to India via the Cape of Good Hope and battled with local Muslims. They returned to Portugal with only five ships, but with a cargo full of spices. Another fleet of four ships sailed to India, battled Muslims and also returned with spices.

Da Gama left on a second voyage in 1502 with twenty ships and made a Muslim king a vassal of Portugal. He captured a large Muslim merchant ship, took its treasures and then sank it, killing 300 men and women and taking 17 children to be baptized as Christians. He then demanded that Calicut expel all 4,000 of its Muslims who lived in the city and, when the king refused, da Gama destroyed the city. He forced the other cities along the west coast of India to sell spices at whatever price he named and he set up the first Indian colony at Cochin. He battled Calicut again and returned to Portugal with riches, spices and even greater fame.

Portugal’s King Manuel ordered that forts be established around the Indian Ocean to monopolize the spice trade and cut off Muslim trade. The Portuguese conquered cities all around the Indian Ocean and slaughtered their inhabitants.

The City-State of Venice panicked at the thought of losing their role as gate keeper of the spice trade in Europe to the Portuguese’s new sea trade route and lobbied Egypt, which had gone into decline due to a lack of spices to trade, to undermine Portugal’s efforts. Venice, Egypt and the Ottomans teamed up to build a fleet to confront the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, but after initial success it was defeated. The Ottomans later conquered Egypt and turned their attention to Europe rather than the Indian Ocean. The Pope and the French defeated the Venetians, further weakening their power.

Starting in 1511, the Portuguese “discovered” Southeast Asia, the source of spices. In 1515, King Manuel sent an army to Morocco to march east to take Jerusalem but it was quickly defeated. In 1520, Magellan discovered the route around the southern tip of south America for Spain and his fleet was the first to sail around the world, resulting in competition over the spice islands between Spain and Portugal.

In 1524, da Gama set sail to India for a third time to take command of Portuguese settlements and root out corruption, tax evasion and other crimes there, but he died in India at the end of the year.

The Portuguese empire was sprawling across the east and became even more corrupt, criminal and cruel. Eventually the inquisition was exported to India and not even Hindus or local Christians were safe. But as the 16th century drew to a close, the small country of Portugal had a hard time manning its empire as the death toll of sea travel never abated, the chances of riches decreased and fewer men were willing to take the risk. In the 17th century, the Dutch ousted the Portuguese from Southeast Asia and the English replaced them in India.

This book briefly covers a lot of history over the course of several centuries and feels a bit unfocused at times, but it does give you a good sense as to the motivations of the Portuguese for discovering the sea route to India and how European colonization of Africa and Asia first began.

[João · Rating 4 out of 5]

A história dos feitos dos Portugueses ao descobririrem o caminho marítimo para a India, sobre a liderança de Vasco da Gama, conseguindo realçar os feitos épicos, mas tentando também revelar os factos à volta dos mesmos, sem floreados, onde tudo era conquistado a ferro e fogo, com o sacrificio de muitas vidas. Este livro tenta também enquadrar o momento da chegada à India, como a vitória final de uma guerra que se travava à séculos entre Cristãos e Muçulmanos, atribuindo os capítulos iniciais a explicar esse contexto. Tenta explicar o porquê de ter sido Portugal a lança do Mundo Cristão nessa vitória, um país pequeno, pobre e periférico, que teve na sua génese essa mesma guerra, com a Reconquista.

[Jamie Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of history in here that was new to me and I found it enlightening. It’s stuff that isn’t part of the traditional American history canon, and easy to read.

Picked the book itself up in Lisbon at what they claim is the world’s oldest continually operating bookstore, Livraria Bertrand (1732), a day after seeing Vasco da Gama’s tomb at the Jeronimos Monastery.

[Meenakshisankar M · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this ambitious and spectacular narrative, Nigel Cliff traces the background and significance of Vasco da Gama's adventurous journey to discover the spice route to India by sailing south along the African coast and turning east, a contrast to Christopher Columbus' attempts to sail towards the west and reach the Indies. Vasco da Gama was chosen and sponsored by the Portuguese king Manuel I. According to Nigel Cliff, the Portuguese interest in discovering the sea route to India was not just limited to share and eventually control the very lucrative trade in spices. Rather, their objective was also to seek an alliance with the mythical priest-king Prester John, who was believed to head an ancient eastern Christian empire in Asia, and the objective of this alliance was to join hands with him and launch a successful Crusade to liberate the holy land of Jerusalem from Muslim control. (I have earlier read about this mythical king Prester John in Baudolino by Umberto Eco, it was a fascinating legend.) I am not very clear how much to believe in this religious twist to the Portuguese attempts, but Nigel Cliff does add enough details to make it a believable claim. The spice trade from India was controlled by Islamic merchants from middle Asia and eastern Europe at that time (towards the end of fifteenth century), so naturally the Portuguese came up against them when they eventually discovered the route to India, and engaged in battles with them. More fascinating is the description of da Gama's journey and the perils he faced, especially after he crossed the Cape of Good Hope, and ventured into the Indian Ocean, a feat nobody had accomplished till then in recorded history. His maiden voyage took two years and traversed an extraordinary 24,000 miles, all this in leaky wooden vessels battered by powerful storms and with the crew stretched to their limits by disease and lack of food/ drinking water. Vasco da Gama's crew faced several odds before reaching the Malabar coast. Though a small number of Christians did exist in India even at that time, they were in interior regions. The Portuguese mistook the Hindus along the coast as Christians and initially rejoiced. They didn't know about the eastern religions and assumed that since idolatory worship is strictly prohibited in Islam, anybody indulging in such practices couldn't be Muslims and hence by default were Christians. (In fact the book mentions that when Hindu priests chanted "Krishna" in the temples, the Portuguese heard it as "Christ" and enthusiastically joined in!) Vasco da Gama's return with crucial information about the route to India turned Portuguese into a world power of the time, and many more fleets were launched and eventually several Portuguese colonies were established along the coast of Africa, India and South East Asia. Vasco da Gama himself returned again as the Viceroy of India and died in Goa. All this and more is described very colorfully by Nigel Cliff.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama. Nigel Cliff. Harper Perennial, 2012. 560 pages.

If you ever need feel the need to pick up a readable historical text that covers the Age of Exploration, specifically Portugal's rise and fall as a world power, then Nigel Cliff's The Last Crusade is the book for you. It reads like a novel, but it is a thorough history European exploration and imperialism in the 15th and 16th centuries. The main focus is Vasco da Gama and his voyages to establish a Portuguese trade route to and relationship with India, voyages that led him to be the first European to successfully reach the subcontinent by sailing around Africa, but da Gama is not even mentioned until about page 150. First, Cliff relates the history of the rise of Islam, Islam's movement into Europe, the European resistance, and the series of Holy Wars launched by Popes and Kings to destroy Islamic control over the Holy Land. Eventually, Portugal and Spain emerged as the self-appointed chief defenders and promoters of the "True Faith." Cliff argues that Vasco da Gama's voyage to India wasn't just driven by the desire for spices and other riches for the Portugese Crown. In fact, da Gama was tapped to lead a new Crusade against Islam, with orders to destroy Muslim military and commercial influence in East Africa and Asia.

What transpired was one misadventure and misunderstanding after another. Da Gama mistakenly believed that India was full of Christians. OK, they were strange Christians that treated cows with reverence and decorated their temples with strange "saints" and "angels" with multiple faces, heads, limbs, but they had to be Christians, right? I mean, there were only Christians and Muslims in the world, right? The luxury goods the Portuguese brought to trade for spices, gold, and precious jewels, were sneered at viewed as garbage by the Indians.

The Last Crusade is an epic history of the "Age of Discovery" and a new interpretation. It is as history should be, great storytelling.

[Dergrossest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Vasco de Gama, and not just because of his OG name ("OG" means "original gangster" for anyone white and over 40). Just like the greatest Conquistadors, he risked everything on a trip into the unknown where death or glory were the only options. I have been to his tomb in Portugal and can assure you that he is still bathed in glory.

This book is the story of how he found that glory, rounding the deadly Cape of Good Hope and securing Portugal's foothold in India. This was no mean feat and the story of how Gama accomplished all this through sheer force of will is amazing. However, I must warn the Bernie Sanders crowd that Gama did not always play nice, was brutal when he had to be with any natives foolish enough to cross him and that he was a cultural/economic imperialist of the first order.

Where the book somewhat breaks down is in its attempt to cast Gama in the greater struggle between Christianity and Islam. While it is true that Portugal's smashing of the Venetian-Ottoman-Mameluke spice cartel inflicted serious injury upon the finances of Islam, it certainly was not the main reason for Christianity's ultimate ascendency. Indeed, Islam remained a real threat to Western Europe for at least another 100 years until it was crushed at Lepanto. Nor is it easy to believe that it was mainly piety, rather than profits, which caused the Portuguese to risk life and limb sailing the unrelentingly cruel seas.

Nevertheless, the story is fascinating and well written. And who knew the Portuguese were such bastards to everyone they colonized? Or that tiny Portugal's outsized excesses would quickly cause it to lose the great empire it had created against all odds. Until I read the excellent Roger Crowley's new book on the subject, this is the book to beat on the subject and I recommend it.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, providing a history of Portugal’s initial forays into the Indian Ocean, set against the larger background of Christendom’s conflicts with the Muslim states. The author, Nigel Cliff, presents Vasco DeGama’s voyages to India, and the whole Portuguese maritime initiative of the 15th and 16th centuries, as an endgame to the Crusading movement started in the 11th century, rather than merely a commercial attempt to circumvent the monopoly of the spice trade held by the Eastern Mediterranean. The first half of the book is spent “setting the scene.” The history of the struggle between Muslims and Christians, from the end of the Roman Empire through to the middle 1400s is provided in detail. An emphasis is placed on Iberia, and specifically the land that became Portugal, with an argument that the religious conflict was the primary influence on Portuguese expansion down the coast of Africa. The main point being that the crusading urge of the nobility promoted the speedy advance in maritime technology and pushed for a rapid series of voyages to sail towards the “Indies.” Eventually, DeGama is introduced and his forays into the Indian Ocean, along with the other Portuguese who went there in the 16th century, are documented. Though trade and merchants are part of the story, the author maintains throughout that religion, not economics, was the true driver of these events. I appreciated the argument and there certainly is evidence that god, not gold, influenced some decisions. But I think the book set up the background of that theory far more deeply than it gave examples of it in action. This is a good book for anyone wanting to better understand why the European elites sent their mariners off on small ships across big oceans. Highly recommended for those wanting to learn more about the start of Portuguese colonization.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember college Western Civilization classes...boring! The assigned textbooks, and "extra reading"? Even worse! But, not so with this refreshingly readable tome of information!
Nigel Cliff mesmerizes the reader with a fascinating look at the world's "dawn of intercontinental discovery".
It's the late 1400's through the mid 1500's, and Europe has its sights set on establishing a maritime path to India and its fabled treasure trove of spices, jewels and silk. Of course, Christopher Columbus grabs most of the credit for discovering America, but in actuality, he was a failure compared to the success gained by the lesser-known Vasco da Gama. Gama was the intrepid Portuguese explorer who was responsible for discovering the sea route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, and sailed up the eastern side of that continent until he reached India.

The discovery paid off handsomely in terms of fabulous booty that made the Portuguese royalty rich and powerful. But all of this adventure wasn't simply for making the king rich. The true agenda here, was the escalation of the centuries-old hostilities between Christianity and Islam, vis a vis the Crusades.

Cliff, in his characteristic flair for making history come alive, describes the war-torn struggle for world domination between the two major faiths. The wresting of the spice trade from the Moslems by the Christians as if justified by the very "Hand of God" is illustrated by many cases of man's inhumanity to man.
This is a powerful book, and is full of ready-to-use resources. There is also an appendix of terms that explain various facts in further historical detail at the book's end.

[T.P. Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was at its best when giving some background to da Gama's voyage to India and especially when describing life at sea and the daunting obstacles the crews faced in the crossing the equator, in the South Atlantic, and passing the Cape of Good Hope. Read like a sailor's yarn, at times. Source material appears to be a surviving (author unknown, but a crew member) account of the trip. Vivid detail in describing cities of India which the Portuguese reached.
Book is on less certain ground in attempting to tie voyages into the Crusades and into current Western -Islam conflict. Author uses 21st century world view in deploring actions of the Portuguese, which concededly had a basis in religion - in this instance, Catholicism (it being pre-Reformation). And, with benefit of 20-20 hindsight, of course the Europeans come off poorly, being slave trading, mercenary, antisemitic, blood thirsty, superstitious Catholics (did I leave anything out?), while the muslim merchants were mere businessmen and part of a culture that preserved Western culture for the undeserving Europeans, Andalusia was heaven on earth, etc.
Author is English and I suspect retains the cultural bias of most English historians against Catholicism (as in Trevelyan's otherwise excellent biography of Garibaldi), and just couldn't help himself.

[Roger Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book about one of my favourite topics..early explorers. In this case, the author proves clearly that while Christopher Columbus has captured most of the limelight in the Americas, in fact, the greatest explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries were Portuguese. Henry the Navigator became one of the first captains to sail beyond Europe to the west African coast followed by Diaz who explored the Guinea coast and brought back some of the first African slaves to Portugal as well as continuing south to the Cape of Good Hope. The greatest of the Portuguese explorers however was Vasco de Gama who made three long voyages around the Cape, up the east coast of Africa and on across the Indian Ocean to explore and bring back to Europe some of the riches of the East, particularly spices and gems. He fought battles with Muslim traders, with some of the rulers of the Indian communities and ultimately opened up coastal India to colonization by Portugal. The author makes it clear however that these voyages had a religious element as well...the attempt to overcome the Muslim monopoly on the Eastern trade and to establish Christianity there. Thus the title, Holy Wars. A fascinating book.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nigel Cliff’s Holy War is a reinterpretation of the explorations conducted by Vasco da Gama. Specifically, he tells the story of the deeply flawed, fanatically religious, but very brave but edacious men who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope from Portugal to India, and in the process broke up the monopoly of the spice trade that the Islamic world had exercised over Europe.

To Cliff, the original motivation behind the Portuguese expansion was not so much trade and profit, as it was religion and a desire to rid the world of Islam. (Cliff's interpretation asks the reader to choose between fanaticism and greed as motivators, not exactly a happy outcome in either event.)

Evaluation: This is a very enlightening and entertaining book. Cliff is a good raconteur, and his descriptions of the privations of the early explorers make riveting reading.

[David Kessler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is packed full of history or in other words the book spent half the book leading up to Vasco de Gama and his primary infamous act of sailing. Gama was the first successful sailing from Europe around the Cape of Good Hope to India and back. The latter half of the book is about the first trip to India and it follows in in detail. Just the travel along the western shores and eastern shores of Africa was full of work. Lulls in the wind left the ship at bay.
I enjoyed the description of his three trips immensely and if I had to do it over again would skip the book before his first sailing to India.
Capt. Gama was a deliberate, thoughtful, religious and well versed sailor and I might add successful.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relato fascinante das viagens da Era das Navegações, com foco nos esforços portugueses e nas viagens do Vasco da Gama. Muito legal saber os detalhes dos primeiros encontros dos europeus na costa oriental da África (sultões, palácios, tribos, ilhas!) & na costa Malabar indiana (soberanos hindus, cristãos indianos, comerciantes árabes, sequestros, enforcamentos, ataques à costa!).

Só não gostei dos últimos capítulos, já sem a figura forte do Vasco da Gama, que tentaram fazer um apanhado de rivalidades européias no Oriente durante todo o século seguinte e uma ponte meio apressada com os recentes conflitos entre muçulmanos e cristãos (válido, mas isso merece um livro inteiro).

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun, well-written, entertaining, but frustrating book--I suppose that characterizes much of popular history. Some of the author's analysis is insightful and spot on, but the last chapter is just tedious an shallow. WAY WAY to much space is spent on the bloody details of Vasco da Gama's second and third voyages to India, but those bloody details do confirm the author's (and history's) conclusion that the Portuguese were vile, bloody, unprincipled, fanatical, piratical, etc. etc. in their relations with India and parts east.