The capital of Portuguese India served as the governing centre of a string of military forts and maritime ports scattered along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.

The first viceroy Francisco de Almeida established his base of operations at Fort Manuel in the Malabar region, after the Kingdom of Cochin negotiated to become a protectorate of Portugal in 1505.

[4][5] From 1535, Mumbai (Bombay) was a harbour of Portuguese India, known as Bom Bahia, until it was handed over, through the dowry of Catherine de Braganza to Charles II of England in 1661.

Over the objections of Arab merchants, Gama managed to secure a letter of concession for trading rights from the Zamorin, but the Portuguese were unable to pay the prescribed customs duties and price of his goods in gold.

[12] The third Portuguese expedition to reach India sailed under the command of João da Nova and was composed of four ships, tasked mainly with acquiring spices and returning to Europe.

Its activities were limited to erecting a fort on the territory of the allied kingdom of Cochin, signing a peace with Zamorin that would prove brief, and opening a new trading post at Kollam.

The sixth Portuguese expedition to India was commanded by Lopo Soares de Albergaria, who bombarded Calicut, relieved Duarte Pacheco Pereira and the Portuguese garrison at Cochin defending the territory from a large attack by the Zamorin at the Battle of Cochin, sacked Cranganore, struck an allegiance with the king of Tanur which removed him from the suzerainty of the Zamorin, and finally captured a large Egyptian trade fleet at the Battle of Pandarane.

On 25 March 1505, Francisco de Almeida was appointed Viceroy of India, on the condition that he would set up four forts on the southwestern Indian coast: Anjediva, Cannanore, Cochin and Quilon.

[14] On 23 October, with the permission of the friendly ruler of Kōlattir, he started building Fort St Angelo of Cannanore, leaving Lourenço de Brito in charge with 150 men and two ships.

[21][22] His tomb at the Nossa Senhora da Serra hermitage was converted to a shrine by the local Hindus, who would leave flowers there in his dedication and direct prayers to him, seeking aid in matters of justice, until his remains were returned to Portugal in 1566.

Several colonies were also acquired from the Sultan of Guzerat in the north Konkan region: Daman was sacked in 1531 and ceded in 1539; Salsette, the seven islands of Bombay, Chaul and Bassein (Vasai) in 1534; and Diu, in 1535.

The successful defence of Dio by captain António da Silveira against overwhelming odds was a battle of annihilation, is one of the most celebrated exploits in Portuguese history, and frequently compared to the Great Siege of Malta.

Portuguese superiority in military technology (especially in ships and artillery), training (especially in the skill of their gunners), and tactics, combined with the disunity of the Indian states opposing them, allowed them to keep their position and consistently win their wars.

Remnants of this cemetery still exist today, very close to Tangasseri Lighthouse and St Thomas Fort, which are listed among the protected monuments in the Archaeological Survey of India.

For these reasons, "Pombal and his collaborators remain, to this day, much respected figures in Goa"[41] In 1783, following an attack on the Portuguese ship Santana, the Marathas handed over control of the territories of Dadrá and Nagar Áveli.

Instead the Indian mission of Special Operations Executive backed a covert raid using members from the Calcutta Light Horse, a part-time unit made up of civilians who were not eligible for normal war service.

[52] The Indian Government adopted a diplomatic "wait and watch" approach from 1955 to 1961 with numerous representations to the Portuguese Salazar dictatorship, and made attempts to highlight the issue of decolonisation before the international community.

[65][full citation needed] After 1974's Carnation Revolution, the new Portuguese government recognised Indian sovereignty over Goa, Daman and Diu,[66] and the two states restored diplomatic relations.

After Goa was conquered, governors and viceroys lived in the Palácio do Hidalcão, the native Indian palace built by the city's former sovereign, the Adil Khan.

[70] The extremely scattered nature of Portuguese holdings however, meant that the State was highly decentralized, with great power being held by individual fortress captains, their captain-generals or town halls, far away from Goa.

Religious Orders of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits established mission headquarters in Goa, giving the Catholic Church a very visible presence and influence in the capital of the State of India, for which it earned the nickname of "Rome of the East", a fact commented by many foreign travellers.

[73] As the Counter-Reformation gained momentum in Europe, Brahmins were excluded from the Portuguese administration during the tenure of Dom Constantino de Bragança, which resulted in a wave of conversions.

[77] The Crown declared a monopoly on their commodities, such as cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger, silk, pearls and the export of gold and silver bullion from Portugal to Asia.

[82] The core element of their trade was Gujarati cotton textiles, but they also dealt in Kerala pepper, cinnammon from Sri Lanka, Kanara rice, diamonds from southern India and larins from Persia.

[87] New Portuguese East India Companies established in 1669 and 1685 failed, largely due to disagreements between the Crown and the merchants over the nature of the enterprise and lack of confidence from investors.

[88] The State was largely urban, since its reason of being was to provide well-protected havens from which trade and communication could be conducted, controlled and dominated, hence only Goa, Daman, Bassein, Chaul and Colombo had any meaningful hinterland and rural populations.

[6] After the massacre of the Portuguese in their feitoria in Calicut in 1500, practically every possession of the State was fortified, sometimes massively, and for this reason it resembled as much a network of maritime communications as an enormous perimeter of fortresses.

At the top of the social pyramid were the European-born viceroys, officers, and clergymen, followed by the Portuguese casados and their Eurasian descendants, who could be wealthy merchants or hold important positions in the local câmara, and finally the native society.

[90] Many casados followed a lifestyle that seemed to foreign visitors as remarkably relaxed and luxurious by European standards, some living in fine houses furnished in the Indian fashion with many servants, abundant and varied food that included a wide variety of fruits and poultry, consumed off Ming porcelain.

[90] Alongside fortresses, ecclesiastical buildings dominated the skyline of most Portuguese settlements, particularly in Goa, giving the city a distinctly European and Catholic flavour and a high profile to the Church.