1542 - Arrival of St. Francis Xavier
This missionary par excellence laid the foundation to many activities which were later developed and perfected by the Church, particularly the Jesuits.

Once his missionary work began, there was certainly no looking back. He was "All Things to All Men". He would dine with the worldy and suffer with the poor, fast with the ascetics and discourse science and philosophy with the learned, amongst many other things.

1543 - 1783: Portuguese acquire Bardez and Salcette from Ibrahim Adilshah.
In 1543 the then sultan Ibrahim Adilshah ceded Bardez and Salcete permanently to the Portuguese on a condition that rival Mir Ali was deported from the region. The areas Portuguese now held- Tiswadi, Bardez and Salcete- marked the extent of Portuguese territory in Goa for the next 250 years, and are now known as the Old Conquests, or Velhas Conquistas.

1570 - The final attempt on Goa by Bahmani kings
In 1565, however, the balance of power collapsed crushed the Vijayanagar army at the Battle of Talikota. With the Muslim kingdoms in alliance rid of their greatest enemy, in 1570 the combined forces of Bijapur, Ahmednagar and Calicut besieged Goa. Despite their overwhelming superiority in numbers they failed to break the defence and after a 10 month siege they had to withdrew.

1600 - English East India Company's charter.
In 1612 the Portuguese fleet was defeated off the coast of Surat by the ships of the British East India Company and the British suddenly became the power to be reckoned with in the Arabian Sea. This threat was eventually dealt with by allowing the British to trade freely in all of Portugal's eastern ports, an agreement reached by the Convention of Goa in 1635.

1639 - First Dutch voyage to the Indies.
The Dutch were no less opportunistic. They attacked Goa itself in 1639, took the Portuguese base in Malacca in 1641, and seized Cochin in 1657. With a string of ports they rapidly came to dominate the trade from the east.

1683 - Attack on Goa by Marathas under Sambhaji.
By the 1660s the Portuguese were also facing a threat from the great leader of the Marathas, Shivaji, who succeeded in taking the neighbouring territories of Bicholim and Pernem in 1664. In 1683, the Maratha army commanded by his son, Sambhaji, got so close to Old Goa that defeat seemed inevitable. Ordering the coffin of St.Francis Xavier to be opened, the viceroy laid the cane of office next to the saint's body and prayed for him to intercede. Miraculously the Marathas withdrew at the last minute, threatened by Mughal forces.

1737 - Marathas and Bhonsles defeated by Portuguese forces.
The Mamthas returned again in 1737, taking the whole of Bardez except for the forts at Aguada and Reis Magos, and the whole of Salcete apart from Mormugao and Rachol. Finally a negotiated peace forced the Portuguese to hand over the territory Bassein, near Mumbai, in return for a Maratha withdrawal from Goa.

1759 - Expulsion of the Jesuits.
At the same time the character of the colony was changing hugely. This period saw the repression of the religious orders (the Jesuits were banned in 1759, and the effective end of the Inquisition in 1774. Thus the new teiritorial acquisitions were spared the forced conversions and crusading Christianity that had been forced on the Old Conquests.

1759 - Viceroy takes up residence in Panjim.
By this stage, Old Goa, once a city of over 200,000 inhabitants, was practically abandoned. The viceroy, with the archbishops and the nobility, had moved out in 1695, and in 1759 the viceregal residence was established in Panaji. Trade and commerce from the port of Goa started a steady decline.

1764 - Acquisition of New Conquests.
In 1764 the Raja of Sonda, attacked by his enemy Hyder Ali of Mysore, asked the Portuguese to occupy his lands in order to protect them for him. Although he intended the occupation to be temporary, the Portuguese obligingly moved into Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona and the acquisition became pennanent.

1783: Portuguese annex Pernem.
Between 1781 and 1788 the three northern districts of Pernem, Bicholim and Satari were also added to the colony, bringing under Portuguese control the entire area that Goa occupies today.

1797 - Occupation of Goa by British Army.
Right at the end of the century Goa was occupied without a shot being fired. The British, engaged in a struggle against the southern monarch Tipu Sultan, marched into Goa in 1797. Although they departed a year later, they were back in 1802, this time guarding against a possible invasion attempt by the French. Despite repeated Portuguese protests, the British garrison remained in Goa until 1813, although there was no attempt to annex Goa.