Anybody but him! WI: no Vasco de Gama

Yo,

Gama was a... peculiar character. Sure all military leaders had a violent psychopathic streak to them but Gama was particularly bad.
A bad diplomat, he took offense at many things and retaliated with massive firepower.

So, what if he hadn't captained the fleet? He was only 3rd or 4th choice after all.

Say if his brother, Bartolomé Dias or Almeida captained it, how would it have gone?
Without those first bad contacts, could we see friendlier relations between East and West in that period? A Calicut based Portuguese Indies?
 
Yo,

Gama was a... peculiar character. Sure all military leaders had a violent psychopathic streak to them but Gama was particularly bad.
A bad diplomat, he took offense at many things and retaliated with massive firepower.

So, what if he hadn't captained the fleet? He was only 3rd or 4th choice after all.

Say if his brother, Bartolomé Dias or Almeida captained it, how would it have gone?
Without those first bad contacts, could we see friendlier relations between East and West in that period? A Calicut based Portuguese Indies?

Very interesting question. Gama had been part of the faction of the Duke of Coimbra, the bastard son of John II, but had a fall out with him and joined Manuel's faction, I suspect that he was only chosen because of this because he had no previous experience, so avoiding their fall out and you have Gama out.

Bartolomeu Dias wouldn't be chosen, he was just a Captain and even today no one actually knows if he had any connections to nobility, which would be a requirement, so he's out.

Almeida had been another of John's men so Manuel wouldn't choose him to go.

My personal bet would be Pedro Álvares Cabral to be chosen, he was highly favored by Manuel, had experience in Africa, was a member of the Council and a Knight of the Order of Christ. A first contact with Cabral would be more diplomatic, but it would still be bound to end at least a bit bad, mostly because he was vain and because the original Fleet had been sent with gifts worthy of a African chieftain (basically a chair would be considered an amazing gift to them, imagine how the Indians felt when Gama showed them what we had) things would go a bit sour.

Still most of the stuff Gama did wouldn't happen, I doubt that Cabral would kidnap Indian nobles for example, so relations with Calicut wouldn't be so bad, sour but not "I'm going to bombard you to oblivion" bad.
 
Very interesting question. Gama had been part of the faction of the Duke of Coimbra, the bastard son of John II, but had a fall out with him and joined Manuel's faction, I suspect that he was only chosen because of this because he had no previous experience, so avoiding their fall out and you have Gama out.

Bartolomeu Dias wouldn't be chosen, he was just a Captain and even today no one actually knows if he had any connections to nobility, which would be a requirement, so he's out.
I get your point but then why was he chosen to round the Cape? That was very important and did entail diplomatic duties with African chiefs?


My personal bet would be Pedro Álvares Cabral to be chosen, he was highly favored by Manuel, had experience in Africa, was a member of the Council and a Knight of the Order of Christ. A first contact with Cabral would be more diplomatic, but it would still be bound to end at least a bit bad, mostly because he was vain and because the original Fleet had been sent with gifts worthy of a African chieftain (basically a chair would be considered an amazing gift to them, imagine how the Indians felt when Gama showed them what we had) things would go a bit sour.

Still most of the stuff Gama did wouldn't happen, I doubt that Cabral would kidnap Indian nobles for example, so relations with Calicut wouldn't be so bad, sour but not "I'm going to bombard you to oblivion" bad.
Well, he did botch his job and did bomb Calicut into oblivion, so I'm not super convinced there.
I do agree it probably wouldn't have been as bad as Gama but clearly the guy wasn't particularly competent either.
Although Cabral first does mean no Miri
 
I get your point but then why was he chosen to round the Cape? That was very important and did entail diplomatic duties with African chiefs?

He was a experienced Captain but he wasn't a diplomat nor can we be sure that he was a noble. His expedition to Cape hadn't even been a expedition to go there, he had been sent south to find news about Prester John and to see how far south Africa went, they thought that Africa went further south.

Well, he did botch his job and did bomb Calicut into oblivion, so I'm not super convinced there.
I do agree it probably wouldn't have been as bad as Gama but clearly the guy wasn't particularly competent either.
Although Cabral first does mean no Miri

Yes but Cabral bombed Calicut because the Samorin had also been insulted by Gama and in turn he insulted Cabral, avoid the first insult and I doubt Cabral would blow them to pieces. Still there weren't many more options and was a diplomat, by the standards of the time, so for all his faults he would be the best case scenario in 1499, with both Almeida and Albuquerque still being seen with some distrust for having been friends with the previous king.

If not you always have Duarte Pacheco Pereira, but he was more of a soldier than a diplomat despite being a studied man, or Nicolau Coelho, he was more careful but I don't know enough about him to say how things would evolve.

There might be more men that could be considered but I can't remember them right now.
 
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