With more rapidity than one would think possible in that age, the commercial consequences of the discovery were appreciated.

The trade of the Levant died away, and the center of gravity was transferred from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

While Venice decayed Lisbon rose with mushroom speed to the position of the great emporium of European ocean-borne trade, until she in her turn was supplanted by Antwerp.
Da Gama was soon imitated by others.

[Sidenote: 1500] Cabral made commercial settlements at Calicut and the neighboring town of Cochin, and came home with unheard-of riches in spice, pearls and gems.
[Sidenote: 1503] Da Gama returned and bombarded Calicut, and Francis d'Almeida was made Governor of India [Sidenote: 1505] and tried to consolidate the Portuguese power there on the correct principle that who was lord of the sea was lord of the peninsula.

The rough methods of the Portuguese and their competition with the Arab traders made war inevitable between the two rivals.