Afonso de Albuquerque, the ruthless architect of Portugal's eastern empire, died at sea near Goa after learning the crown had replaced him as governor of Portuguese India. He had seized Goa, Malacca, and Hormuz, building a network of fortified trading posts that gave Lisbon control over the lucrative spice trade for a century. His death marked the end of the aggressive expansion phase of the Estado da India.
Albuquerque arrived in India in 1503 and rose to become the second governor of Portuguese India, a post from which he pursued a strategy of seizing strategic chokepoints rather than simply trading from coastal factories. His capture of Goa in 1510 gave Portugal a permanent naval base on the subcontinent, while his taking of Malacca in 1511 opened the door to the Spice Islands and the entire Southeast Asian trade.
His methods were brutal even by the standards of the age: after recapturing Goa, he ordered the massacre of its Muslim population, and his campaigns against Hormuz and along the Arabian coast were marked by similar severity. Yet his administrative innovations, encouraging intermarriage between Portuguese soldiers and local women to build a loyal colonial population, had lasting effects on Goan society.
Returning from a campaign in the Red Sea in 1515, Albuquerque learned that King Manuel I had appointed a rival, Lopo Soares de Albergaria, to succeed him as governor, apparently believing reports that Albuquerque had grown too powerful. He died aboard his ship within sight of Goa, reportedly lamenting his fall from favor after decades of loyal service, and was buried in the city he had made the capital of Portuguese Asia.