Introduction Blog

Salutations my fellows, my name is Afonso de Albuquerque and I was a Portuguese fidalgo (nobleman), a naval general officer, a Portuguese admiral and statesman, the founder of the Portuguese Empire in the East, and the coolest man ever, if I do say so myself. I was born somewhere between 1453 to 1462 (I’m so old even I don’t remember). I was born in a city called Alhandra, near Lisbon in Portugal. My parents are Goncalo de Albuquerque and Dona Leonor de Menezes. I’m quite an accomplished man if I do say so myself, and I will go further in to my accomplishments in my other blogs. In my day, during the Age of Exploration, I was an exceedingly energetic commander of Portuguese India and I greatly expanded Western influence in the area. After Vasco da Gama returned to my country of Portugal in 1499 with vast riches from his expedition in the Indian Ocean, my country was eager to spread our influence in hopes of outflanking the Muslims and hoarding maritime trade. I was one the men sent out to do just that. I established my military career by campaigning in North Africa against Muslims. I spend most of my days exploring and raiding the East African shores. I sought to destroy all Arab trading in the region and put all commerce in the hands of the Christian governments. Having spent much of my youth fighting the Moors in Spain, I was pretty sure that those Muslims were a threat to Christian civilization. I also knew that cutting off Arab trade in Indo-China would greatly weaken those Ottoman Turks who were threatening all of Europe at the time. One of my major military victories was capturing the island of Socotra, impeding Arabian trade with India. From the beginning I sought to establish a dominant Portuguese empire in the East and destroy Muslim power, even in their native lands. Getting in to when things happened, I was appointed viceroy of Portugal’s possessions in Asia in 1506. From 1509 to 1515, I served as the governor of India, and at the same time extending the empire eastward. Pretty impressive, huh? I seized Goa in 1510 and made it the center of Portuguese power and trade in the East. By 1515, my super amazing and fantabulous conquests included Hormuz in Persia (which is now some place called “Iran”), Malabar in India and the Sunda Isles, Ceylon (“Sri Lanka” I believe is the new modern name), and Malacca in Southeast Asia. Today, I’m “historically famous” (yes!!) for my conquering of various African, Indian, and Southeast Asian locales. Apparently, my fellow Portuguese men, to British dismay, also made it so that I am also nowadays known as “Afonso de Albuquerque the Great!” Isn’t that wonderful?!  I am widely known for wiping out the Muslim population during that time period. Now, many people in this day and age would consider that as being cruel and harsh, but hey, I had to do what I had to do. For me, conquest of Malacca served two purposes. It could help destroy the Arab spice trade and also provide us Portuguese men with a way station on the route to the Moluccas. Well, now that you have a little bit of my background information, I hope that the rest of my blogs will be more understandable and more interesting for you guys. :)
 Aren't I handsome?! ;)