Timeline February 1502

Events in February 1502 3

• 1502 Vasco da Gama attacks Calicut and burns the Miri Portuguese fleet wages a punitive campaign on India's Malabar coast Vasco da Gama returned to India in 1502 commanding a heavily armed fleet sent to avenge earlier Portuguese losses and enforce a trade monopoly. Off the Malabar coast in October his ships captured and burned the Miri, a vessel carrying Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca, killing several hundred people. He then bombarded the port city of Calicut, the Zamorin's capital, to punish it for trading with Portugal's rivals.
• 1502 Castile orders Muslims to convert or leave Royal edict ends toleration of Islam in Castile Ferdinand and Isabella issued a decree compelling the remaining Muslim population of Castile to convert to Christianity or go into exile. The order followed the 1492 expulsion of Jews and the earlier forced conversions in Granada, and created the converted Muslim population later known as Moriscos. Many who nominally converted continued to practice Islam in secret.
• 1502 Largest colonization fleet yet sails for Hispaniola Nicolas de Ovando takes over as governor of the Indies Nicolas de Ovando departed Spain in February 1502 leading a fleet of roughly thirty ships carrying about 2,500 settlers, the largest expedition sent to the Americas to that point. He landed at Santo Domingo in April and took over as governor of Hispaniola, replacing Francisco de Bobadilla. His administration expanded the encomienda system of forced native labor across the island.