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50 free Vasco Da Gama trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Vasco da Gama left Lisbon in July 1497 with four ships and 170 men and came home two years later with two ships, about 55 men and the first sea route from Europe to India. This quiz covers that voyage in detail: the record run without landfall, the coast he named Natal, the Muslim disguise in Mozambique, the pilot hired in Malindi, the arrival at Calicut, the words 'Christians and spices', the Hindu statue mistaken for the Virgin Mary and the deadly return against the monsoon. It also covers what came after: the titles and the pension, the Fourth Armada and the burning of the pilgrim ship Mirim, the mutilated priest, the years in the political wilderness, the Magellan threat that won him a county, the viceroyalty and death in Cochin in 1524, the muddle over his bones, his sons in Malacca and Ethiopia, Camões's epic, Meyerbeer's opera and a wreck found off Oman. It suits history students, Age of Discovery buffs and quiz-night regulars. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Vasco da Gama, Os Lusíadas and the Cape Route, and each question shows its supporting sentence after you answer.
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Q 01What is Vasco da Gama most famous for?
The first sea route from Europe to India
His 1497-99 voyage round Africa and across the Indian Ocean opened Europe's sea trade with Asia and is counted a turning point in world history.
Q 02In which small port town in southwest Portugal was Vasco da Gama born?
Sines
His father Estêvão was the town's civil governor; King Manuel later tried to give da Gama the town as a fief, and the knightly order that owned it refused to hand it over.
Q 03Which Portuguese captain rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, a decade before da Gama sailed on to India?
Bartolomeu Dias
He got as far as the Fish River and proved the coast turned northeast; da Gama's job was to join that discovery to the spy reports from India.
Q 04Which king dispatched two spies overland via Egypt in 1487 to scout India's spice markets ahead of a sea voyage?
John II of Portugal
Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva went east; the king wanted to break the Venetian near-monopoly on the overland spice trade.
Q 05What was the size of the fleet da Gama led out of Lisbon on 8 July 1497?
Four ships and 170 men
Only about 55 men and two vessels came home; the round trip covered more distance than the length of the equator.
Q 06What was the name of da Gama's flagship on the first voyage?
São Gabriel
A newly built carrack of 178 tons, it was one of two sister ships; his brother Paulo commanded the other.
Q 07Which vessel was the caravel nicknamed Berrio, commanded by Nicolau Coelho?
The São Miguel
Coelho got home first, in July 1499, and personally broke the news to the king at Sintra.
Q 08What record did the fleet set by sailing over 10,000 km of empty ocean before sighting Africa again in November 1497?
The longest open-sea run to that date
Da Gama swung out into the South Atlantic to catch the westerlies Dias had found, rather than hugging the African coast.
Q 09Which stretch of African coast did da Gama name because he passed it at Christmas 1497?
Natal
The word carries the sense of the birth of Christ in Portuguese; the region kept the name for centuries.
Q 10How did da Gama gain an audience with the Sultan of Mozambique in March 1498?
He impersonated a Muslim
His paltry trade goods failed as gifts, the townspeople grew suspicious, and he left firing his cannon into the city.
Q 11In which friendly East African port did da Gama hire the pilot who guided him across the Indian Ocean?
Malindi
Its rulers were at odds with hostile Mombasa; the pilot was a Gujarati who understood the monsoon, not the famous Arab navigator of legend.
Q 12Which famous Arab navigator is often, but wrongly, said to have piloted da Gama to India?
Ibn Majid
Contemporary accounts place him elsewhere, and at 77 he was too old for the trip.
Q 13On which date did da Gama's fleet reach the Malabar Coast of India?
20 May 1498
They landed at Kappadu, near the city Europeans would call Calicut, after a 23-day crossing on the summer monsoon.
Q 21Which king rewarded da Gama with a hero's welcome, a pension and the title Dom on his return in 1499?
Manuel I
He also tried to give him his home town, which the knightly order that owned it refused to surrender, souring da Gama on his own order.
Q 22What grandiose title was da Gama granted in January 1502?
Admiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia and India
It echoed the ornate Castilian title Columbus had been given.
Q 23Who commanded the Second India Armada of 1500, whose factory in India was overrun with up to 70 Portuguese killed?
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Q 14Asked what had brought them to India, da Gama's men gave what famous answer?
'Christians and spices'
Da Gama even knelt before a statue in a Hindu temple believing it was the Virgin Mary; it was the goddess Parvati.
Q 15What title did the Hindu ruler da Gama met in India in 1498 hold?
The Zamorin
He received the visitors with a procession of at least 3,000 armed Nairs, but the talks produced nothing.
Q 16Why did da Gama's gifts fail to impress the Indian court?
They were trivial: cloth, hats, sugar and honey
Officials wondered where the gold and silver were, and Muslim merchants suggested he was a mere pirate, not a royal ambassador.
Q 17How long did the return crossing of the Indian Ocean take against the monsoon, when the outward crossing had taken just over three weeks?
More than 90 days
Da Gama ignored local advice and sailed before the winter monsoon set in; roughly half the crew died and many of the rest had scurvy.
Q 18Why did da Gama scuttle the São Rafael off East Africa in January 1499?
Too few men left to sail three ships
The survivors were split between the two remaining ships.
Q 19What did the sultan of the friendly Kenyan port allow da Gama to erect there on the return trip in 1499?
A padrão, or stone marker
Known locally as the Vasco da Gama Pillar, it seems to be the only one of his many padrões to survive.
Q 20Where did da Gama bury his brother Paulo, who died on the voyage home?
In the Azores
He stayed by his sick brother on a Cape Verde island rather than sail home in triumph, and lingered in mourning at Angra before reaching Lisbon.
He bombarded the city in response, starting a war that da Gama was sent to prosecute two years later.
Q 24How large was the Fourth India Armada that da Gama led out in February 1502?
Fifteen ships and 800 men
It was a family affair: his uncles Vicente and Brás Sodré and two brothers-in-law held commands, and a cousin followed with five more ships.
Q 25What did da Gama do to the Mirim, a ship carrying over 400 Muslim pilgrims, in October 1502?
Looted it and burned it with all aboard
The passengers offered a ransom that 'could ransom all the Christian slaves in the Kingdom of Fez'; only twenty children were spared, for forced conversion.
Q 26What did da Gama do to the high priest sent to negotiate with him in 1502?
Cut off his lips and ears
He then bombarded the unfortified city for nearly two days and mutilated the crews of captured rice boats.
Q 27Which East African sultanate did the Fourth Armada reduce to tribute, extracting a large sum of gold?
Kilwa
The fleet also opened contact with the gold port of Sofala on the way out.
Q 28Who was made the first Viceroy of Portuguese India in 1505, while da Gama was pointedly overlooked?
Francisco de Almeida
Da Gama had come home in 1503 without bringing the Indian ruler to heel, and his uncle then failed to protect the Cochin factory.
Q 29Whose defection to Spain in 1518 prompted da Gama to threaten the same, finally winning him a title from the king?
Ferdinand Magellan
The king hurried to give him a county in 1519 rather than lose his 'Admiral of the Indies' to Castile.
Q 30What noble title did da Gama receive in 1519 after years of petitioning?
Count of Vidigueira
The Duke of Braganza ceded him the towns of Vidigueira and Vila dos Frades for a payment.