_ 203 _ in conflict with Portugal since the bombardment that Pero Alvares Cabral had inflicted on the town in 1500 as revenge for the sacking of the factory and the massacre of his men. The kings of Cochin and Cannanore had straight away taken the side of Cabral and offered to let him establish himself in their lands. The tension increased two years later to the intervention of Vasco da Gama who conducted a series of offensive actions against the fleet and the important people of Calicut. In spite of the threatening situation created by these attacks, Vasco da Gama had obtained important economic advantages for Portugal: the fixing of the price of spices and a statute for the factories of Cochin and Cannanore. The hospitality given to the Portuguese delegation by the Rajah of Cochin gave the Samorin of Calicut the excuse to revive the war and to invade the kingdom of his rival called by the name of their principal towns: Cannanore, Calicut, Cochin and Kollam. Made powerful due to the riches that foreign trade brought him; the Samorin of Calicut tried to extend his hegemony over the greater part of Kerala. He exercised constant political pressure over his neighbouring rulers who suffered badly from being thwarted by his economic power. The antagonism between Calicut and Cochin, openly declared since the 15th century, had as its pretext a dynastic rivalry (cf. Achyuta Menon, Cochin State Manual, Ernakulam, 1911, p. 38 and 42-44).
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