In 1497, he was given command of a Portuguese government-equipped expedition tasked with discovering a maritime route to the East. Vasco da Gama was born into a noble family. Commissioned to find Christian lands in the East by King Manuel I of Portugal (the king, was under the impression that India was the mythical Christian kingdom of Prester John) and to obtain Portuguese access to the commercial markets of the Orient, Vasco da Gama expanded the discovery of the sea route of his predecessor, Bartolomeu Dias, who had first rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer, the first person to sail directly from Europe to India, and one of the most influential in the European Age of Exploration.
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