Re: [GRN] Re: Dutch map ‘stolen from the Portuguese’

[John de Figueiredo]

Small correction. Ibn Majid was not the Muslim pilot who helped Vasco da Gama according to current research. Sometimes connecting the dots is as important as discovering something anew. Einstein, Watson, and Crick connected the dots. Vasco da Gama connected the dots. This was a major contribution for which he deserves credit. Moreover, during his brief tenure as Viceroy (yes, he was in Goa) he took drastic measures to end the stealing and the corruption. Nobility also married Goan natives or lived with them. An example was Diogo Rodrigues “o do Forte” who demolished Hindu temples (and this action of his was condemned by the Senate of Goa, then composed only of Portuguese Europeans). He married a Goan woman (Hindu converted to Catholicism) and became the owner of a large property in Colva’. This so-called “miscegenation” of the Portuguese was condemned by Linschoten who was a racist. There was racism (and “castism”) in Goa before the arrival of the Portuguese. There was also death by fire in Goa before the arrival of the Portuguese, a practice the Portuguese ended. There was racism throughout the Portuguese Empire. But my point is that not every Portuguese or European who came to Goa was a racist or a thief. Some, like Francis Xavier and Luiz de Camões, condemned the stealing and corruption. Francis Xavier fired a fellow Jesuit (European) and expelled him from the Society of Jesus Christ because he had engaged in a racist behavior against the Goans while he (Xavier) was away from Goa. John M. de Figueiredo  Sent from my iPhone On Oct 4, 2024, at 4:52 AM, Joao Paulo Cota <joao_c...@hotmail.com> wrote:  Quite a few historical books mention about the nature of Portuguese who went to places like Goa. They were often uneducated, from the country side, rough, brutes and with hardly any etiquete. Hence, their needs were obviously more of a very basic nature... Possibly why race was never an issue to them to have personal relationships with the native population, as long as their personal needs were met. Also, on other reference material, educated Portuguese often made highly derogatory remarks on the native population, calling them 'barbarians' and 'savages'. Of course, the average natives of the land would not have any universities and libraries to get themselves any refined education. Making such lame comparisons, only showed their lack of intellect and reasoning, despite having attended schools and colleges. There is hardly any evidence that these higher class colonisers have mingled as much with the local 'barbarian' populace, as much as the uneducated, coloniser 'brutes' did. Hence there was an unspoken, racial issue based on social class. Vasco da Gama never discovered India, the arabs did in the 8th century. He would ha been nowhere if not for the help of the Omani navigator Ibn Majid who had been requested to guide VDG to the Malabar coast in india in 1498. Else he would had met the same fate as Colombo the drunkard, who got lost in the Carribean and assuming he reached India, called the place the West Indies. History needs a bit of an update.       From: 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-research-net@googlegroups.com> Sent: 03 October 2024 11:23 To: goa-research-net@googlegroups.com <goa-research-net@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: [GRN] Re: Dutch map ‘stolen from the Portuguese’   Alberto, The Portuguese stole as much as any other nation. The Portuguese difference was the willingness of mixing with other ethnic groups, from the casual sexual intercourse to marriage and to the ability to "go native". We might on occasion consider the "natives" primitive, but that never stopped us from having normal intercourse with them. Considerations of racial purity never came to our minds. We might not have been very tolerant in respect of religion, but race differences never bothered us...   Nuno Cardoso da Silva     Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2024 at 11:40 AM From: albert...@sapo.pt To: goa-research-net@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [GRN] Re: Dutch map ‘stolen from the Portuguese’   John. Vasco (Vasco foi Gamar, as some Portuguese say) attacked ships in the Indian Ocean, killed their crew and looted everything. Do you think the Portuguese were different?  What do you think of the black slaves from Africa taken to the American continent? The Inquisition in Goa? You cannot whitewash the history recorded and archived in France, Venice and Florence (Italy), the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India, etc. (The verb Gamar in Portuguese means to steal). Alberto, professor aposentado de Historia.   ----- Mensagem de John de Figueiredo <johnde...@sbcglobal.net> --------- Data: Wed, 2 Oct 2024 13:07:12 -0400 De: John de Figueiredo <johnde...@sbcglobal.net> Assunto: Re: [GRN] Re: Dutch map ‘stolen from the Portuguese’ Para: goa-research-net@googlegroups.com   SOME Europeans “did everything they could to get their hands on the wealth of the Asians”. But there were other Europeans (Portuguese) who did not do that and some who called to task those who stole (like Vasco da Gama when he was Viceroy of Portuguese India). John M. de Figueiredo    Sent from my iPhone   On Oct 2, 2024, at 11:15 AM, albert...@sapo.pt wrote:          -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-net+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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