Vasco da Gama, 1st
Count of Vidigueira, (; c. 1460s – 23 December 1524) was a
Portuguese explorer. He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking
Europe and
Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as linking the
Atlantic and the
Indian oceans entirely and definitively, and in this way, the
West and the
Orient. This was accomplished on his first voyage to India (1497–1499).