Swahili commercial settlements had existed along the…

Swahili commercial settlements had existed along the East African coast and outlying islands for several centuries when Portuguese explorers reached East Africa in 1498.

The voyage of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean in 1498 had marked the Portuguese entry into trade, politics, and society in the Indian Ocean world.

The Island of Mozambique had first been occupied by Portuguese explorers in the late fifteenth century.

They had quickly established a fort here, and with time a community will spring up and achieve importance as port of call, missionary base and a center for a thriving trade in gold, ivory, and enslaved East Africans.

Portuguese trading posts and forts will soon become regular ports of call on the new route to the east.