[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882) › c7.s7.2 # The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s7.2 The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s7.2 - **Language:** English ### [c7.s7.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s7.2) The proceedings of the Muslmáns, so far as they can be traced, have been brought down to the middle of the seventeenth century. It is now necessary to turn back to the first appearance on the coast of the Portuguese who here as over the whole of the east played so grand a part through the whole of the sixteenth century. It is impossible to understand the position which they held on this coast without considering the objects which they pursued as to the whole of Asia and the enmities which they thereby excited. For many centuries the Egyptians had held the monopoly of the Indian trade, and the Venetians were closely connected with them as the chief carriers of Indian goods from Alexandria to Europe.¹ But the Portuguese immediately after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and their first visit to Calicut in 1498, resolved to become the commercial masters of the East, and for that purpose they not only claimed the monopoly among European nations of trading by the Cape of Good Hope, but also undertook the wonderful enterprise of conquering the whole coast of Asia, from the Red Sea round the Persian Gulf, along all the shores of India, and away to the Straits China and Japan.² This of course brought them into immediate collision with the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and with the whole body of Musalmán traders spread along the shores of the Eastern seas, who soon saw the necessity of opposing the Europeans by every artifice and every force,³ for the Musalmáns of those days had no more idea than the Christians of commerce being the right of all nations equally. Thus the Egyptians, who were the first enemies of the Portuguese, were entirely supported by the local traders; and the Venetians, seeing how seriously the defeat of the Egyptians would affect their prosperity, joined in the vain attempt to confine the Indian trade within its old bounds.⁴ The Portuguese had gradually made their way up the coast from Calicut, and had had many more or less casual encounters with the Musalmán fleets. - [Previous: c7.s6.130](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s6.130) - [Next: c7.s7.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s7.3) - [Up: c7.s7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s7.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s7.2) · Pramāṇa