Portuguese discoveries a ground-breaking voyage commanded by Vasco da Gama. The squadron of Vasco da Gama left Portugal in 1497, rounded the Cape and continued along the coast of East Africa, where a local pilot was brought on board who guided them across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut in western India in May 1498. The second voyage to India was dispatched in 1500 under Pedro Álvares Cabral. While following the same south-westerly route as Gama across the Atlantic Ocean, Cabral made landfall on the Brazilian coast. This was probably an accidental discovery, but it has been speculated that the Portuguese secretly knew
Winds in the Age of Sail with the summer monsoon and south with the winter monsoon. The Dutch republic began its remarkable rise about 1580 during its war of independence from Spain. With the union of the two crowns in 1580 it was also at war with Portugal. In 1595 Jan Huyghen van Linschoten published previously-secret Portuguese sailing directions for the Indian Ocean. The Dutch reached Java in 1596 and the Spice Islands in 1599. In 1611 Hendrik Brouwer found a better route to the East Indies. After reaching the roaring forties he continued east almost to Australia and then swung north. This avoided Portuguese warships