Page 601-610
Children Everywhere learn that the European Empires in the Western Hemisphere grew out of an accident---Columbus's unknowing encounter with the Americas -- and that new colonial sociaties and new commercial connections across the Atlantic were the result..BUT in Asia it was a different story!
To Asia it was No accident...it was an outcome of a deliberate, century long Portuguese effort to explore the sea route to the east. The medication to for the massive effort was because of the desire to have the spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and above all, pepper(from Java).
A portugueses Empire of commerce:
Portuguese created in the Indian Ocean in commonly known as a "trading post empire" for they aimed to control commerce, not large territories or populations and to do so by force of arms rather thinly economic competition.
Spice Trade: for a thousand years, spices were a major trade item in the Indian Ocean commercial network
Dutch and English were competitors for the spice trade and together they quickly overtook and displaced the Portuguese often by force, even as they competed vigourously with each other as well.
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