Which sailor was the first to discover the sea route to India?

The first navigator who discovered the sea route to India was Vasco da Gama from Portugal. He was able to sail around Africa along a route that other Portuguese navigators had partially mastered before him from 1440 to 1489. After the Cape of Good Hope, he entered the Indian Ocean and sailed further north past Zanzibar and the Socotra archipelago to southwest India. Thus, it was possible to find a route for the supply of spices and spices from India to Europe, bypassing the Middle East, where the trade routes were controlled by the Turks, Arabs and Venetians with the Genoese.

Following Vasco da Gama, other Portuguese sailed to India, using this route in 1511 they reached Malaysia, and by the 1530s to Japan.