In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon to find a sea route to India, in a mission to open up a direct route to the spices of the east. It would involve sailing down the coast of Africa, further than any European had gone before and crossing the Indian Ocean into hostile Muslim territory. It was the longest voyage known to history, and an incredible feat of adventure and determination. 10 months later the battered fleet arrived at the port of Calicut, and the first European to set foot onto this mystical shore was a convicted criminal.

Vasco Da Gama would return twice more to India, the last time as a governor to try and re-assert royal dominance on a wayward colony, he did not come home.
Nigel Cliff covers what is for me part of a fascinating period of history, where adventurers pushed back the borders of their civilisations to discover, map and most importantly, conquer the unknown. The level of research for this book is staggering, yet it is delivered in an easy, swashbuckling manner that is almost novel like, and that meant I eagerly turned every page.
Tied into the battle to open a route for spices, is the ongoing battle for supremacy between Christianity and Islam that still resonates today, and Cliff sets the narrative in the context of it’s time, and creates an epic that brings the voyages vividly to life and the collision between two opposing cultures, while still focusing on the astounding feat of the voyages themselves, even including Cabral’s inadvertent discovery of Brazil, his ships becoming the first to touch four continents.

Of course after the discovery came the colonisation, As the Christians sought to push the Muslims from the position of power with the powerful Indian rulers, and at the same time keep their route exclusive from other countries looking to grab a piece of the lucrative trade. As the new dominions spiralled out of control there was one man Portugal sent back to try and rescue their eastern empire, the very man who discovered it for them in the first place.

(blog review here)

This was a well written and documented historical reference book. The author wrote this in a style of a regular novel leaving notes to the back of the book and explaining motives and ideas of the particular time period. It really opens ones' eyes to the complexities and simplicities of religion through the ages and how 'spices' prompted its own crusade. I highly recommended to anyone who wants to know the history of religion during Gama's era.

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!"

The book has been retitled for paperback as "The Epic Voyages of Vasco De Gama." While a great portion of the book does concern de Gama, the original title of "Holy War" is more accurate. Because of the title change, I spent the first 1/3 of the book wondering when the book was going to get to these Epic Voyages. It really reads like two books, one is an overview of the history of the Muslim vs. Christian conflict. And the second is the aforementioned voyages. I found the first part a little slow, but again, I was mislead by the title and thought it was a brief introduction to the voyages. The second book was much more interesting.

That all being said, I think this is a very important book to help people place the current Christen vs. Muslim conflict into historical perspective. Not a student of religion myself, I was very interested in the origins of both religions and their long standing conflicts. I strongly recommend this book, just don't believe the paperback title.

It's always amazing to see the details behind well known events. In school I was taught that the Portuguese voyages to reach India were driven by a desire to access India's wealth, end of story. And that's true as far as it goes but Mr. Cliff spends a great deal of time explaining how the Portuguese viewed it as a Crusade to flank the Muslims of the Middle East, link up with lost Christian empires in India and to cut off their cash flow. I guess two out of three ain't bad.

Mr. Cliff starts out with the background such as the rise of Islam, the Muslim conquest of Iberia, the fall of Byzantium and the Reconquista but also the legend of Prester John. A mighty Christian king supposedly living in the Indies on the far side of the Muslim Ottoman and Mamluk empires. Apparently, the reasoning was that if the Western Christians could only link up with Prester John they could launch a two fronted Crusade to retake Jerusalem.

After this set up he launches into the initial voyages of discovery down Africa's west coast that charted they way later followed by Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama. The majority of the book is taken up with Vasco da Gama's first voyage to reach India. His visits and attempts to establish relations with the Muslims of East Africa were quite interesting and the first Christian encounter with Hindus in India was sort of amusing (apparently the first reaction was, "they ain't Muslims so they must be Christians, not sure what's up with these blue, four armed saints though").

Then he moves onto the first arrival in India. Apparently the local rulers were unimpressed with the Portuguese trade goods and then tried to hold them hostage because they hadn't brought the customary gold tribute. Needless to say they got off to a bad start. The book culminates with describing how Portugal set up it's Asian colonial empire. One da Gama proved that the voyage was possible with three light ships, eighteen heavy war ships made the voyage and really shifted the balance of power in Portuguese-Indian negotiations.

On a final note, the book does delve into how the Portuguese operated after establishing their beachhead. To put it mildly they were brutal, forced conversions and slavery were only the start of it. Granted, the local Indian rulers didn't seem likely to treat the Portuguese any better were the situations reversed but it disgusts me that some of these actions were performed in the name of Jesus Christ.

Overall, I'm impressed by the perseverance and the hardships the Portuguese overcame to establish contact between India and Europe but am still shamed that this prelude to imperialism was done under the aegis of Christianity.

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.

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.

often "Racy" and "Nail biting " are not the adjectives I tend to associate with non fiction, but I couldn't find better words to describe the book. The narration is worthy of a Hollywood screenplay. European naval warfare and crusades intrigue me and this book catered to my cravings. Throughly researched and wonderfully narrated.

**start and finish dates are approximate**
Nigel Cliff did a fantastic job at detailing Vasco da Gama’s life and journeys.
I feel like da Gama is one of the few voyagers and discoverers where we only here the basic details - nothing elaborated - about what exactly he did.
However, in Cliff’s book, we get da Gama’s life, connections, discoveries, and hardships all outlined in a amazingly written book.

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.