Portuguese conquest of Goa

Capture of Goa
Map of Goa, in Linschoten's Itineraries, ca.1590.
Date December 10, 1510 Location Goa, India Result Portuguese victory Conquest of Goa by the Portuguese
Belligerents
Portuguese Empire	Bijapur Sultanate
Commanders and leaders
Afonso de Albuquerque Timoji	Yusuf Adil Shah Ismail Adil Shah
Strength
First attack: 1600 Portuguese 220 Malabarese 3000 fighting slaves 23 ships 2000 men of Timoji	First attack: over 40,000 men
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown Civilian casualties unknown

The Portuguese conquest of Goa occurred when the governor of Portuguese India Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1510. Goa was not among the cities Albuquerque had received orders to conquer: he had only been ordered by the Portuguese king to capture Hormuz, Aden and Malacca.

On November the 4th 1509, Afonso de Albuquerque succeeded Dom Francisco de Almeida as Governor of the Portuguese State of India, after the arrival in India of the Marshal of Portugal Dom Fernando Coutinho, sent by King Manuel to enforce the orderly succession of Albuquerque to office. Unlike Almeida, Albuquerque realized that the Portuguese could take a more active role breaking Muslim supremacy in the Indian Ocean trade by taking control of three strategic chokepoints - Aden, Hormuz and Malacca. Albuquerque also understood the necessity of establishing a base of operations in lands directly controlled by the Portuguese crown and not just in territory granted by allied rulers such as Cochin and Cannanore.

Shortly after a failed attack on Calicut in 1509, Albuquerque was replenishing his troops in Cochin and organizing an expedition with which to attack the Suez in the Red Sea, where the Mamluks were believed, correctly, to be preparing a new fleet to send to India against the Portuguese. The Portuguese Marshall Dom Fernando Coutinho had been killed in Calicut, fortuitously leaving Albuquerque with full, uncontested command of Portuguese forces in India. The Portuguese force was composed of 23 ships, 1200 Portuguese soldiers, 400 Portuguese sailors, 220 Malabarese auxiliaries from Cochin and 3000 "fighting slaves". The expedition set sail for the Red Sea in late January 1510, in February 6th anchored by Canannore and in the 13th sighted Mount of Eli.

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