The Portuguese and Spaniards in South-East Asia

Abstract

At the end of the Middle Ages the Portuguese were well fitted for the leadership of a European effort to exploit the trade of the Indian Ocean. Their position on the Atlantic made them a race of mariners able to cope with the risks of the sea. In their long crusade against the Moors they had built up a formidable naval power. They employed skilled Genoese seamen. They were ahead of other powers in the construction of ‘great ships’ able to accommodate large numbers of men for long ocean voyages. Their chief ports, Lisbon and Oporto, had trading connections with both the Mediterranean and northern Europe. When, under the leadership of Vasco da Gama, they made their first appearance in the Indian Ocean they had behind them the experience of a long series of explorations and the urge of a fervent nationalism, which impelled them to destroy Islam.