History of Goa

Goa's history stretches from Stone Age settlement through centuries of Hindu and Muslim dynasties, roughly 450 years of Portuguese colonial rule, and finally integration into independent India. Today it's India's smallest state, and consistently one of its most prosperous.

Early History

Evidence of human presence in Goa goes back to the Stone Age, with the rock engravings at Usgalimal among the oldest traces of settlement anywhere in India. Between roughly the 10th and 14th centuries, the Kadamba dynasty ruled much of the region from Chandor, turning the port of Gopakapattana into a trading hub with links stretching to East Africa, Bengal, Gujarat and Sri Lanka. Several other powers held Goa in the centuries that followed, including the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara Empire, before the Bijapur Sultanate took control in 1492.

Portuguese Rule (1510–1961)

In 1510, Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, beginning roughly 450 years of Portuguese rule. Goa became the capital of Portugal's possessions across Asia and a major hub of the spice trade, prosperous enough in its heyday to be called "Goa Dourada" — Golden Goa. The Portuguese brought Asia's first printing press to Goa in 1556 and founded Asia's first European-style medical college there, while also enforcing Christian conversion, most notably through the Goa Inquisition, which ran from 1560 to 1812.

Liberation & Statehood (1961–Present)

After India's independence in 1947, Portugal refused to hand Goa over. Tensions built for more than a decade until, on 18 December 1961, Indian troops entered Goa in Operation Vijay; Portuguese forces surrendered the next day. Goa celebrates 19 December as Liberation Day every year. It was initially administered as part of the union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, before being granted full statehood on 30 May 1987 — the date Ami Goans marks each year too.

Text summarised from the Wikipedia article History of Goa, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.