Europeans in the Indies

​Europeans in the Indies

The collapse of Mongol rule in Asia, starting around 1300, led to the rise of large, centrally governed states. In the centuries that followed, Muslim empires stretched from India across Southwest Asia and North Africa. China moved westward into Central Asia. Russia expanded eastward. These powerful states, with much to gain from trade, helped keep Asia’s overland trade routes secure.

During the same period, European states pioneered the sea route around Africa to the Indian Ocean and east to China. Economic activity increased as new channels of trade and commerce opened. Overland routes funneled trade goods to dozens of European trading posts planted along the coast. For the first time in history, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas were directly connected by a global trading network.

​Portugal Gains Access to Asian Maritime Trade 

The great powers of Asia, such as India and China, focused on expanding their land-based empires. They did take part in maritime, or sea-based, trade, but they claimed no political right of ownership over the seas. Europeans were more possessive. In 1499, Vasco da Gama laid claim to the entire Indian Ocean for Portugal. The Portuguese set about building a trading empire, based on territorial rights granted to them in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Portugal’s main goal was to sail to the Indies and trade for luxury goods. There was just one problem. The empires of Asia did not need or want most European goods. Instead of exchanging products, Europeans would have to pay for Asian goods with money—mainly silver.

One solution was to take part in the intra-Asian trade. Some merchants began carrying foods and other ordinary goods from one part of the Indies to another, making a profit on each trade. Over time, they built up cargoes that could be exchanged for fine spices (black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves), Indian textiles, Chinese porcelain, and other Asian goods highly prized by Europeans.

​To conduct trade, Portuguese merchants needed land bases and often used force to get them. The Portuguese used their cannon-equipped cargo ships to attack and take control of key coastal towns. In this way, they captured Goa in India, Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, Macao in the southern coast of China, and Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, which was the center of the East Indian spice trade. Malacca also controlled the narrow Strait of Malacca, the link between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and thus served as the eastern gateway to China and Japan.

The Portuguese used their naval advantage to dominate shipping in the Indian Ocean. They overpowered Asian merchant vessels and stole their cargoes. They blocked access to traditional shipping routes, too. One such route carried spices and other luxury goods through the Red Sea and across Egypt to the Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese were never able to establish a complete monopoly on coastal trade in the Indian Ocean because Asian merchants fought back. Some armed their ships. Others changed their trade routes. Despite this, the Portuguese gained control of a large part of the intra-Asian trade over time.

 By the mid-1500s, the Portuguese had established an effective model of expansion into Asian trade. The model had three basic parts.

1. The Portuguese relied on their superior ships, armed with gunpowder weapons, to establish land bases and achieve control of the seas.

2. At their land bases, they established trading posts called factories. These commercial centers managed Portuguese trade and finances in the region.

3. Finally, they built fortresses to protect their factories and the small colonies that arose nearby.

​The European Model of Expansion

​By 1600, the Portuguese had a string of more than 50 fortified coastal trading posts from East Africa all the way to Japan. At this time, the only other European state competing with Portugal in Asia was Spain, which controlled the Philippines. Soon, however, Portugal had a lot more company in the Indies. The Dutch and the English, by applying the same model of expansion, would nearly eliminate Portugal from the Asian trade.

​Competing for the Asian Trade

The English, in 1600, and the Dutch, in 1602, each formed an East India Company to carry out long-distance trade with Asia. The government of England gave the English East India Company, and only that company, the right to trade in Asia. The government of the Netherlands, on the other hand, authorized its Dutch East India Company not only to conduct trade but also to carry out political negotiations and to engage in warfare. By doing this, the Dutch hoped to limit the success of the English in the Indies and to eliminate the Portuguese from the region completely.

Like the Portuguese, the Dutch took a military approach to creating a trading empire in the Indies. They hired experienced naval officers to help establish and maintain their outposts. Negotiations with local Asian officials also often went much more smoothly when a ship bristling with cannons was anchored just offshore. The Dutch East India Company set up factories in India and Japan and points in between, but they focused their efforts on the East Indies.

In the East Indies, the Dutch hoped to monopolize the spice trade by taking control of the Spice Islands, now part of eastern Indonesia. There, most of the world’s supply of nutmeg, mace, and cloves grew. First, the Dutch wrested control of the islands from the Portuguese. Then, they used force and threats of force to compel local leaders to cooperate. In one group of islands, they slaughtered the native people and took over the production of their nutmeg and mace, bringing in enslaved Africans to cultivate the trees that yielded the spices. Finally, in 1641, they seized Malacca from the Portuguese.

The English East India Company, at least at first, took a less violent approach to the Asian trade. Its traders sought permission before locating a factory on foreign territory. Kept out of the East Indies by the Dutch, the English focused on trade with India. There, they negotiated for trading rights with the Mughal Empire and local Indian officials.

English merchants followed a fairly standard trading procedure. They used silver to buy Indian textiles and then traded the textiles in the East Indies for pepper and other spices, which they shipped to England. They also carried Indian cotton and indigo, a plant that yielded a blue dye, to Europe.

Some 200 years after the Portuguese arrived in the Indies, European merchants were still confined to coastal trading posts and various islands. In 1757, however, the British took control of the Indian territory of Bengal after Mughal power collapsed. In the years that followed, Britain would gain control of all of India and absorb it into its growing colonial empire.

The India trade brought the British great wealth, helping them expand into other parts of Asia. Economic power gave them military power—the ability to build ships, equip them with weapons, and engage them in warfare with their competitors. The British ousted the Portuguese from ports such as Hormuz and battled the Dutch off and on throughout the 1600s.

​In the 1700s, European demand for spices fell, severely reducing the Dutch East India Company’s profits. However, the demand for Indian textiles, Chinese tea, and other such goods rose. The British were well-positioned to profit from trading in those goods. After the Dutch East India Company lost its government charter, the British took over most of its outposts in the Indies. Great Britain now dominated the Asian trade.

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What led to the rise of large, centrally governed states in Asia?

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The collapse of Mongol rule

The expansion of Muslim empires

The movement of China westward

The expansion of Russia eastward

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Which European state laid claim to the entire Indian Ocean in 1499?

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Spain

England

Portugal

Netherlands

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What did the empires of Asia mainly want in exchange for their goods?

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European goods

Gold

Silver

Spices

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What did the Portuguese merchants use to capture key coastal towns?

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Cannons

Swords

Ships

Horses

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Which European state nearly eliminated Portugal from the Asian trade?

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Spain

England

Netherlands

Russia

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What did the Dutch hope to monopolize in the East Indies?

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Gold

Spices

Silk

Tea

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Which European power gained control of all of India in the 18th century?

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Spain

England

Portugal

Netherlands

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What gave the British economic and military power in Asia?

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What reduced the Dutch East India Company's profits in the 1700s?

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Decreased demand for spices

Increased demand for Indian textiles

Loss of government charter

Competition from the British

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Which European power dominated the Asian trade in the 18th century?

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Spain

England

Portugal

Netherlands