Lentorama 2022: It Happened on Easter

Day 4: The first voyage of the East India Company

The East India Company, an English venture set up to generate trade from Asia, saw its first voyage set off on April 22, 1601. Sort of. The five ships left port in February, but adverse winds kept them from clearing the English Channel until Easter Sunday.

In any event, the voyage succeeded in the way most English adventures abroad did, through violence. They captured a Portuguese ship, and used its cargo to help finance the establishment of two trading factories in what is today Indonesia. From there the EIC would spread throughout Asia, most notably in India, with the results that made the British so beloved in that part of the world.