European Expansion(Spain) in Indian & Pacific Ocean 1400–1550 & Encounters with Europe, 1450–1550

24 Abril 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

Spanish Voyages: - When Christopher Columbus approached the Spanish crown with his project of finding a new route to Asia, the Portuguese had already established their route to the Indian Ocean

·         The King and Queen of Spain agreed to fund a modest voyage of discovery,

Columbus set out in 1492 with letters of introduction to Asian rulers and an Arabic interpreter.

·         After three voyages, Columbus was still certain that he had found Asia, but other Europeans realized that he had discovered entirely new lands

·         These new discoveries led the Spanish and the Portuguese to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they divided the world between them along a line drawn down the center of the North Atlantic.

·         Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage across the Pacific confirmed Portugal’s claim to the Molucca Islands and established the Spanish claim to the Philippines

·         Encounters with Europe, 1450–1550
Western Africa: - During the fifteenth century many Africans welcomed the Portuguese and profited from their trade, in which they often held the upper hand

·         In return for their gold, Africans received from the Portuguese merchants a variety of Asian, African, and European goods including firearms

·         Interaction between the Portuguese and African rulers varied from place to place

·         The oba (king) of the powerful kingdom of Benin sent an ambassador to Portugal and established a royal monopoly on trade with the Portuguese

·         Benin exported a number of goods, including some slaves, and its rulers showed a mild interest in Christianity

·         After 1538, Benin purposely limited its contact with the Portuguese, declining to receive missionaries and closing the market in male slaves

·         The kingdom of Kongo had fewer goods to export and consequently relied more on the slave trade

·         When the Christian King Afonso I lost his monopoly over the slave trade his power was weakened and some of his subjects rose in revolt
Eastern Africa: - In Eastern Africa, some Muslim states were suspicious of the Portuguese, while others welcomed the Portuguese as allies in their struggles against their neighbors

·         On the Swahili Coast, Malindi befriended the Portuguese and was spared when the Portuguese attacked and looted many of the other Swahili city-states in 1505.

·         Christian Ethiopia sought and gained Portuguese support in its war against the Muslim forces of Adal

·         The Muslims were defeated, but Ethiopia was unable to make a long-term alliance with the Portuguese because the Ethiopians refused to transfer their religious loyalty from the patriarch of Alexandria to the Roman pope