HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 201

tion, from the encouragement of economic
growth on the ground to the promotion of
maritime trade. He commenced an efficient
oversight of revenues by the implementa-
tion of the intendente (intendant) system
(borrowed from France), which gave each
colonial governor an expert manager to
assist him in balancing the topics and
extracting maximum income from his juris-
diction. Gálvez enhanced and extended
royal power throughout the colonies, show-
ing the same rigor that he had displayed in
Mexico during the 1760s when he merci-
lessly repressed several outbreaks of indige-
nous or proto-nationalistic resistance.
Among the group of devoted and dedi-
cated statesmen who made Charles III per-
haps the most successful of enlightened
despots, Gálvez was an outstanding execu-
tor of royal policy. Moreover, in his brother,
Matías de Gálvez, and his nephew, B ER -
NARDO DE G ÁLVEZ , he found and employed
men who were not mere beneficiaries of
nepotism but active agents of Enlighten-
ment. They demonstrated their abilities in
G UATEMALA and L OUISIANA , respectively,
and then served, father succeeded by son,
as viceroy of New Spain. Together these
three members of the Gálvez family con-
tributed much to the preservation of impe-
rial Spain. Unfortunately their intervention
came too late to preserve what so many
predecessors had built and what a few
unworthy monarchs would soon destroy.

trade with the Indies. Departing in 1497
with four ships, he followed the route
marked out by a succession of earlier Portu-
guese maritime pioneers along the western
coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good
Hope, and sailed up the east coast. Crossing
the Indian Ocean from Malindi to Calicut,
he established friendly relations with local
rulers and returned home in 1499 to report
that he had accomplished the mission that
had been started nearly a century earlier by
Prince Henry the Navigator. Gama laid out
the plans for the 1500 voyage of P EDRO Á LVA -
RES C ABRAL but was sent back to India in
person in 1502 when the king determined
that stronger measures were necessary to
establish Portuguese primacy in the East.
With a fleet of 20 ships Gama enforced the
submission of important African chiefs,
clashed with Arab traders who felt their
regional monopoly threatened, and pro-
cured the cession of bases on the west coast
of India. He thus secured the establishment
of what grew into the Portuguese Empire in
Africa and Asia. Although his methods were
harsh the results were vastly profitable, and
the Portuguese crown awarded him numer-
ous honors, including the title count of
Vidigueira. Returning to the scene of his ear-
lier triumph in 1524 with the rank of vice-
roy, Gama died soon after his arrival. His first
voyage was elevated by the poet C AMÕES to
the level of heroic mythology in the epic The
Lusiads. Gama has remained the ultimate
exemplar of those navigators and adventur-
ers who shaped Portugal's Golden Age.

Gama, Vasco da (1469-1524)
Portuguese navigator
The son of a Portuguese official who had
been designated originally to undertake the
voyage, Gama was sent, after his father's
death, by M ANUEL I to initiate Portuguese

Ganivet, Ángel (1865-1898)
Spanish writer
Born in G RANADA , Ganivet was educated
there, specializing in foreign languages. He