Afonso de Albuquerque
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Afonso de Albuquerque , also called Afonso the Great (* 1453 in Alhandra near Lisbon , † December 16, 1515 in the roadstead near Goa ), was a Portuguese military, politician and seafarer and second governor of Portuguese India . With his work he created the basis for the Portuguese expansion in Asia .
The years of birth are also given as 1445, 1450 and 1462.
Life
Born from the Portuguese aristocracy, Albuquerque was the second son of Gonçalo de Albuquerque, lord of Vila Verde dos Francos, and Leonor de Menezes. Both his father's and mother's families were related to the Portuguese and Castilian royal families.
He spent his youth at the court of King Alfonso V of Portugal, where he was also educated. During his training he was particularly interested in mathematics and the Latin classics.
In 1476 he took part in the war against Castile as a follower of the later King John II . He later took part in a campaign against the Turks , which culminated in 1481 with the recapture of the Italian sea fortress of Otranto by Christian troops. Between 1489 and 1495 he fought near Arzila and Larache in Morocco . Albuquerque also provided supplies for the menagerie of Manuel I of Portugal, including the elephant Hanno and a rhinoceros from India. For his military merits, he was appointed a member of his personal bodyguard by Johann II and awarded the honorary title of "Supreme Stallmeister" at the royal court.
Naval commander
In 1503 Albuquerque made his first voyage to India as the commander of three Naus of the Portuguese fleet, one of which was under the command of the experienced Nicolao Coelho . His nephew Francisco de Albuquerque and António de Saldanha also commanded three Naus each on this trip. The fleet was intended to strengthen the Portuguese presence in India. On this trip the Portuguese consolidated the position of the allied ruler of Cochin by building a fortress, defeated the Muslim-backed troops of the Samorin of Calicut in several skirmishes and established first trade relations with Quilon on the southern tip of India. In July 1504 Albuquerque returned to Portugal with a rich cargo of spices.
In 1506 King Manuel I of Portugal appointed him the second governor of all Portuguese possessions in Asia ( see also: Portuguese India ) - without giving him the title of viceroy at the same time . Vasco da Gama was appointed second Portuguese viceroy after Francisco de Almeida in 1524 when he was also appointed governor ( Governador da Índia ).
Also in 1506, Manuel I appointed Albuquerque to command a squadron of five Naus in a total of 16 ships under Tristão da Cunha . The fleet circled the Cape of Good Hope together , passed Madagascar and sailed along the East African coast. Here Albuquerque and da Cunha, who was heading to India, separated. In 1507, Afonso de Albuquerque and his squadron captured the strategically important base of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf . He had already conquered the island of Socotra the year before, but was unable to hold it because of insufficient strength and lack of supplies. The aim of Albuquerque was to control shipping in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf through a chain of fortified coastal posts and thus to secure the area against attacks by the Turks and Arabs . Despite the successful privateer war and the sacking of Muscat and other rich trading cities on the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, tensions and disputes between Albuquerque and the captains of its fleet, led by João da Nova , an experienced Indian captain and commander of the flagship Albuquerque, Flor de la Mar, increased , were performed. These disputes escalated into open revolt, so that Albuquerque finally had to sail on to India in 1508. He was reproached for not guarding the Red Sea, as his actual mission had been. This meant that a fleet from Egypt could get to India. This was equipped with European ship types and surprised the squadron of Lorenzo de Almeida, the son of Viceroy Francisco de Almeida . Its death and defeat shook Portugal's previously fragile power in India and could only be restored with the naval battle of Diu .
India
His predecessor as governor and acting viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, disapproved of Albuquerque's plans and actions in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea and refused to resign. Between December 1508 and March 1509 he held Albuquerque under arrest, from which he was only freed by the arrival of a new Portuguese fleet of 15 ships under Fernando Coutinho , the marshal of the kingdom. Coutinho confirmed both the royal appointment of Albuquerque as governor of India and his mission in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, so that he could take office after the departure of Francisco de Almeida.
With the destruction of an Indian-Egyptian-Arab fleet on February 3, 1509 in the port of Diu under the personal leadership of Francisco de Almeida, the latter avenged the death of his son, Lourenço de Almeida , in the battle near Dabul a year earlier. With this victory, the Portuguese laid the foundations for undisputed naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean , which they successfully defended throughout the 16th century. The Arab trading cities along the Arabian Peninsula and the East African coast never recovered from this blow, and the centuries- old Indian trade almost completely came to a standstill on the part of the Arabs.
When Albuquerque came to power as governor, Albuquerque continued his plans to build a chain of selected strategic fortified squares to help build and secure the Portuguese Estado da Índia and enforce the Portuguese monopoly of trade in Asia.
Renewed fighting with Kalikut in January 1510 ended with a defeat and a serious wound to the governor. In March 1510, Albuquerque took Goa , which lies on the west coast of India and belongs to the Sultanate of Bijapur , but had to give it up again in August in order to finally conquer it in November 1510. Since then Goa has been the capital of Portuguese India and the Estado da Índia. Goa became the seat of the Portuguese governors and viceroys, from where not only maritime trade to Southeast Asia and Europe was controlled, but also Christian proselytizing began.
Conquest of Malacca
His next action was in the flourishing port city of Malacca (now Melaka in Malaysia ), which controlled the Straits of Malacca and thus the route to the Spice Islands, the Moluccas .
First, Albuquerque tried to get the Sultan of Malacca to cooperate. He presented him with a gift in an audience. This scene is depicted on a large mural in the Stadhuys Museum in Malacca. However, it shows a severe provocation for Muslims: Albuquerque tries to hang a chain around the sultan's neck as a gift, with the left hand, which Muslims consider unclean. The picture shows how the Sultan shrinks back in shock in front of the chain in his left hand. The Sultan then declined to study these uncouth figures. Then the military clashes began.
The Sultan had nothing to oppose the ship cannons of Albuquerque. In July 1511 Albuquerque attacked the city with a fleet of 16 ships and captured it on August 24, 1511. This attack came after a Portuguese attempt in 1509 to establish a trading post under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira by the Sultan of Malacca under the Influence of Gujarat traders had been forcibly rejected. During these clashes, 19 Portuguese, including the later chief commercial agent in Malacca, Rui de Araújo , were imprisoned by Sultan Mahmud. To secure this outpost, which is extremely important for the spice trade, Albuquerque laid the foundation stone for the later stone fortress "A Famosa" (the miraculous).
On November 20, 1511, on the return voyage to Goa, he got into serious distress, lost his flagship Flor de la Mar and with it all his treasures and the valuable cargo and was only able to save his life.
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Activities in Arabia
Since he was commissioned by King Manuel I to guarantee the safety of Portuguese shipping against attacks by Turks and Arabs, in 1513 he was the first European ever to undertake a violent reconnaissance voyage through the Straits of Bab el Mandeb ( Gate of Tears ) with his fleet Red sea . As in 1507, he again led a successful privateer war against Arab and Turkish ships, but failed in March 1513 during the siege of Aden .
In 1515 he succeeded in reoccupying the island of Ormuz (today: Hormuz in Iran ) at the entrance to the Persian Gulf . Expanded into a strong fortress, Hormuz was one of the main bases of the Portuguese in Asia until it was lost to the British in 1622. Since it controlled a large part of the sea trade between the Ottoman Empire and India, it was also one of the richest trading centers in the world.
Albuquerque ruled the colonial empire with strict military discipline, but also earned the respect of its Portuguese and Indian subjects. To enforce Portuguese trade, for example, he decreed that all non-Portuguese ships in the Indian Ocean required Portuguese permits if they wanted to reach a certain sea area. However, no permits have been issued for the Red Sea. But he did not leave it at this decree, he also enforced it. Through a skilful policy of alliance with local rulers, diplomatic and administrative efforts, support for shipbuilding and the local industry in India, as well as targeted promotion of marriages between members of the Portuguese and the local population, Albuquerque succeeded with extremely little material resources and only a few human resources (he never had a larger contingent of troops than a maximum of 4,000 men) to lay the foundations for the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia and to ensure its continued existence. Following the example of the Lisbon Senate , he created a Portuguese Senate for Goa. He left justice and administration to loyal Indian officials. He largely recognized the customs and traditions as far as they did not concern religion: he uncompromisingly suppressed the custom of widow burning when the man died.
Intrigue and death
Despite these successes and valuable services, Albuquerque eventually fell victim to intrigue at the Portuguese royal court. His opponents accused him of wanting to make himself independent with the Estado da Índia. In 1515 King Manuel I, who had meanwhile withdrawn his trust, appointed one of Albuquerque's enemies, Lopo Soares de Albergaria , as his direct successor as governor.
A few days after he learned of his deposition, he died on the road from Hormuz back to Goa in the roadstead outside his capital. Originally buried in Goa, his remains were transferred to Lisbon with great honors in 1566 .
In 1557 Albuquerque's son, Brás de Albuquerque , wrote a biography of his father with his Comentários de Afonso de Albuquerque , which also contained his father's letters to the Portuguese king and other records.
monument
His statue can be seen in the Padrão dos Descobrimentos near Lisbon.
See also
literature
- H. Morse Stephens: Albuquerque. ( Rulers of India ) Oxford 1892 ( digitized version )
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Albuquerque, Afonso de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Afonso the Great; Albuquerque, Affonso de; Albuquerque, Alfonso de (Spanish) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese politician and navigator; Governor of India |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1445 or 1450 or 1453 or 1462 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Alhandra near Lisbon , Portugal |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 16, 1515 |
| Place of death | near Goa , Portuguese India |