Imperialism in Asia: Encyclopedia II - Imperialism in Asia - Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonization in Asia

Imperialism in Asia - Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonization in Asia

For further detail see Portuguese Empire.

Imperialism in Asia - Portuguese monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean

In Asia, European powers initially exploited the discoveries of their explorers largely through trade; Europeans started to carry on trade from forts, acting as foreign merchants rather than as settlers. In contrast, early European expansion in the "West Indies," (later known to Europeans as a separate continent from Asia that they would call the "Americas") following the 1492 Northwest Passage voyage of Columbus, involved heavy settlement in colonies that were treated as political extensions of the mother countries, which sought to transplant European civilization to a new environment.

Lured by the potential of high profits from another expeditions, the Portuguese established a permanent base south of the Indian trade port of Calicut in the early 15th century. In 1510 the Portuguese seized Goa on the coast of India, which Portugal held until 1961. The Portuguese soon acquired a monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean.

Portuguese viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque (1509-1515) resolved to consolidate Portuguese holdings in Africa and Asia, and secure control of trade with the East Indies and China. His first objective was Malacca, which controlled the narrow strait through which most Far Eastern trade moved. Captured in 1511, Malacca became the springboard for further eastward penetration; several years later the first trading posts were established in the Moluccas, or "Spice Islands," which was the source for some of the world's most hotly demanded spices. By 1516 the first Portuguese ships had reached Canton on the southern coasts of China. By 1557 the Portuguese gained a permanent base in China at Macao, which they held until 1999. The Portuguese, based at Goa and Malacca, had now established a lucrative maritime empire in the Indian Ocean meant to monopolize the spice trade. The Portuguese also began a channel of trade with the Japanese, coming the first recorded Westerners to have visited Japan. This contact introduced Christianity and fire-arms into Japan.

The energies of Spain, the other major colonial power of the 16th century, were largely concentrated on the Americas, not South and East Asia. But the Spanish did establish a footing in the Far East in the Philippine Islands. After 1565, cargoes of Chinese goods were transported from the Philippines to Mexico and from there to Spain. By this long route, Spain reaped some of the profits of Far Eastern commerce. Spanish officials converted the island to Christianity and established some settlements, permanently establishing the Philippines as the area of East Asia most oriented toward the West in terms of culture and commerce.

Imperialism in Asia - The decline of Portugal's Asian empire since the 17th century

The lucrative trade was vastly expanded when the Portuguese began to export slave from Africa in 1541; however, over time, the rise of the slave trade left Portugal over-extended, and vulnerable to competition from other Western European powers. Envious of Portugal's control of trade routes, other Western European nations—mainly Holland, France, and England—began to send in rival expeditions to Asia. In 1642 the Dutch drove the Portuguese out of the Gold Coast in Africa, the source of the bulk of Portuguese slave laborers, leaving this rich slaving area to other Europeans, especially the Dutch and the English.

Rival European powers began to make inroads in Asia as the Portuguese and Spanish trade in the Indian Ocean declined primarily because they had become hugely over-stretched financially due to the limitations on their investment capacity and contemporary naval technology. Both of these factors worked in tandem, making control over Indian Ocean trade extremely expensive.

The existing Portuguese interests in Asia proved sufficient to finance further colonial expansion and entrenchment in areas regarded as of greater strategic importance in nearer Africa and Brazil. Portuguese maritime supremacy was lost to the Dutch in the 17th century, and with this came serious challenges for the Portuguese. However, they still clung to Macau, and settled a new colony in Timor Island. It was as recent as the 1960s and 1970s that the Portuguese began to relinquish their colonies in Asia. Goa was invaded by India in 1962; East-Timor was abandoned in 1975 and was then invaded by Indonesia; and Macau was handed over to the Chinese as per a treaty in 1999.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonization in Asia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki