1. European Footholds in South & Southeast Asia
By: Jason Graham

2. Portugal Builds An Eastern Empire
After Vasco da Gama’s voyage, the Portuguese spread into the Indian Ocean.
By that time the Muslim rulers already established the Mughal empire throughout most of India.
The Southern part of India was still run by the local princes.

3. A Rim of Trading Outposts
The Portuguese took over the island of Goa, which is off the coast of India.
This was made into their military and commercial base.
In less than 50 years, the Portuguese had built a trading empire with military and merchant outposts.

4. Limited Impact
The Portuguese lacked resources to make inroads to the region.
They made an effort to convert their people to Christianity and by 1600’s they converted fewer than a million people to Christianity

5. Rise of the Dutch
The Dutch were the first Europeans to challenge Portuguese domination of Asian trade.
The country we now know as Netherlands was earlier used for trading purposes.

6. Building a Mighty Sea Power
In 1599, the Dutch came back to Amsterdam from being in Asia for over a year.
They brought back pepper, cloves and other spices.
The Netherlands gained a secure foothold in the region after a frenzy of overseas activities.

7. A Powerful Dutch Company
In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was formed by a grouped of wealthy Dutch merchants.
The company had full sovereign power, unlike the Spanish and Portuguese companies, and were powerful from the start. It eventually dominated the region.

8. Asserting Dutch Dominance
In 1641, Malacca was captured from the Portuguese by the Dutch and opened tade with china.
A monopoly was then formed in the spice islands, controlling shipments to Europe as well as trade within Southeast Asia.
The Dutch trading empire declined because of the growing power of England and France.

9. Spain Seizes The Philippines
Spain decided to take over the Philippines because the Dutch and the Portuguese set up bases on the fringes of Asia.
Spain had conquered and colonized all the islands within about 50 years.
They tried to convert everyone to Christianity so they could be united and become a stronger force.

10. A Center of Valuable Trade
Mughal India was the center of the valuable spice trade and also major in exporting a lot of silk and cotton cloth.
No kingdom in Europe was as large, as wealthy and as powerful.
Over time the Mughal empire weakened.
By the late 1700’s, it had used its great wealth the dominate most of India.