How Did Vasco Da Gama Establish The First Modern Global Networks?

Western Europe established the first modern global networks, but it was not because their economies were much more advanced than others. Europe looked up to places like India, where Vasco Da Gama showed his country’s (Portugal) inferiority once he noticed how wealthy the Indian king was. Islamic Empires such as the Ottomans conquered Constantinople closing all trade routes from Europe to Asia, forcing Europe to alter their routes. Also, Europe did not compare to China, who had a great explorer that sailed more voyages than Christopher Columbus, and created very useful inventions that helped industrialize Europe, thus giving them the upper hand in becoming the first modern global networks. Although Europe used compass, printing, and gunpowder, …show more content…
Attempting to deceive local Indians and the Indian king himself, Da Gama informed everyone that he came to India looking for Christians and spices when in fact he was looking for gold. The king of India knew Da Gama was lying because when he brought the king a few gifts, they were lousy. Vasco Da Gama brought gifts such as honey to a king who drank out of a gold cup. Da Gama lied to the king because he wanted to impress him so he would want to trade gold with the Western Europeans. He and his sailors waited for nearly four hours showing signs of desperation. As said by Da Gama himself; “Our captain was kept waiting with his conductors for fully four long hours…” (Da Gama 541). The Europeans were looked as jokes by the Indian king because if they were as wealthy as Vasco Da Gama exaggerated, they would not be waiting so anxiously to give the gift of …show more content…
Aurangzeb (1658-1707) was a greedy ruler and brother who made an alliance with one of his many brothers, and later betrayed him by murdering him. Once Aurangzeb died, there was no one left to take the throne and rule considering he did not leave any advice on maintaining the great empire. Because there was no succession, the Mughal empire ceased.
Once Constantinople (present day Istanbul) conquered, and took control of the middle east, Europe was forced to alter their trading routes to Asia. As confirmed by Kevin Reilly, “In 1453, the Ottomans seized Constantinople, the ancient capital of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire, and by 1529 their armies had advanced to the gates of Vienna in the heart of central Europe, led by Suleiman (1520-1566), the most famous of all Ottoman rulers.” (Reilly 224). The islamic posed as a threat to the European which was one of the contributions of Europe’s explorations through the Atlantic ocean in search for