History of Goa

The sheer inaccessibility of Goa by land has routinely kept it out of the mainstream of Indian History. On the other hand, its command of the oceans and its s superiority in the lucrative spice trade made it a much-coveted reward for nearly all colonial powers. Until a century before the appearance of the Portuguese in Vasco Da Gama who settled beside Kozhikode in Kerala in 1498, Goa had belonged for over a thousand years to the kingdom of Kadamba. In the interim it had been effectively conquered by the Karnatakan Vijayanagars, the Muslim Bahmanis and Yousuf Adil Shah of Bijapur but the capture of the fort at Panaji by Alfonso De Albuquerque in 1510 indicated the start of a Portuguese occupation that was to last for 450 years.

The achievement of freedom by the Portuguese led to the efforts of the Indian Government who slashed off diplomatic binds with Portugal to aid the efforts of freedom fighters like Menezes Braganza and Dr.Cunha.After a "liberation march" in 1955 produced in several killings and the state was blockaded. Trade with Mumbai stopped and the train services was cut off. The erstwhile rulers set out to forge worldwide connections especially with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Indian government did not tolerate this and mounted an "Operation Vijay" to liberate Goa.The Indian army liberated Goa in two days from the clutches of the Portuguese rule. Thereafter Goa (along with Portugal's other two enclaves Daman and Diu) became part of India as a self ruling Union Territory with little interference from Delhi. After Independence, Goa witnessed an unprecedented increase in iron -ore exports. It also experienced a significant increase in agricultural output and become one of the prized states of the Indian Union.

Goa and the Indian government, worked aggressively to promote the state as an exotic destination. And today, it has emerged as one of the most popular destinations on planet Earth.