Portuguese India

Portuguese India

The State of India (Portuguese: Estado da Índia), was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.

The Portuguese State of India was established in 1505 as a viceroyalty of the Kingdom of Portugal, six years after the discovery of a sea route between Portugal and India, to serve as the plenipotentiary governing body of a string of Portuguese fortresses and colonies overseas. The first viceroy was Francisco de Almeida, who established his headquarters in Cochin (Cochim, Kochi). Subsequent Portuguese governors were not always of vice-roy rank. After 1510, the capital of the Portuguese viceroyalty was transferred to Goa. Until the 18th Century, the Portuguese governor in Goa had authority over all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to southeast Asia. In 1752 Mozambique got its own separate government and in 1844 the Portuguese Government of India stopped administering the territory of Macau, Solor and Timor, and its authority was confined to the colonial holdings on the Malabar coast of India.

At the time of British India's independence in 1947, Portuguese India included a number of enclaves on India's western coast, including Goa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves of Daman (Port: Damão) and Diu, and the enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which lie inland from Daman. The territories of Portuguese India were sometimes referred to collectively as Goa. Portugal lost the last two enclaves in 1954, and finally the remaining three in December 1961, when they were taken by India after military action (although Portugal only recognized Indian control in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution and the fall of the Estado Novo regime).