The Cape route (Carreira da Índia)

node · earth · Atlantic and Indian Oceans — Lisbon to Malabar via the Cape of Good Hope

The sea road from Lisbon to India around southern Africa, and the first all-water link between Europe and the Asian spice markets. It is not a coasting voyage: outbound ships left Lisbon in the spring, ran south to the Cape Verdes, then made the great westward arc of the volta do mar largo across the South Atlantic — often within sight of Brazil — before the southern westerlies drove them east to round the Cape of Good Hope. From there they worked up the Mozambique Channel and used the south-west monsoon to reach Malabar, arriving after roughly six months at sea. The homeward leg had to be timed to the north-east monsoon, so the whole route ran on an annual clock set by the weather rather than by commerce, and a ship that missed its window waited a year. The route did not destroy the older Red Sea and Persian Gulf spice channels so much as compete with them, unevenly and by force; what it changed decisively was that a European crown could now buy pepper at the source and carry it home without any intermediary's permission.