Did the Portuguese trade in the Indian Ocean alter the character of trade and community networks that existed prior to the 16th century?
Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in the in the Indian Ocean in 1498, no single power had attempted to monopolize the sea lanes that connected the ports of the Indian sub-continent with the Middle East and East Africa on the West, and the ports of South East Asia and China to the East. Unlike in the Mediterranean where during Roman times, rival powers attempted to control the oceanic trade through military means, peaceful trade had remained the norm in the Indian Ocean. Although there were periods when coastal rulers of the Malabar coast and Southern India were powerful enough to demand toll taxes from passing ships, there had not been any systematic attempt by any single political power to eliminate all others from the oceanic trade that touched the Indian subcontinent. The origins of the Indian Ocean trade can be traced back to the Hellenistic period and even to that of the Roman Empire. But it acquired a distinct character with the rise of Islam in the Arabian region and that of the Sung dynasty in China. The extent of the trade at the entry of the Portuguese in the region was from South East China in the East to East Africa in the West including the island of Mozambique to the south and the Indonesian archipelago in the South East.
The Portuguese writers describe the trans-continental trade as segmented which can be explained by the wind system in the Indian Ocean and the seasonal nature of sailings. The basic difference in trade lies in the motives of the activity. Before the Industrial Revolution the composition of long-distance trade was determined by eating and drinking habits clothing, and housing. But the later period needed a compelled continuity of uninterrupted flow of fuel, raw material and food stuff. Also, the nature of organization of trade played an important role. The mixture of goods traded in the re-modern period was very random as opposed to the later times. The pre-15th century Arab and Chinese geographical texts spoke of various natural hazards involved in long-distance shipping, they did not cite any significant political or military impediments to undertaking long-distance voyages other than the risk from pirates. Thus, evidence left behind by chroniclers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta, Persian ambassador Abdur Razzaq, the Venetian Nicolo Conti, and Genoan Santo Stefano – all indicate that the Indian Ocean was the scene of thriving trade in the 14th and 15th centuries
In 1492 the Genoese sea captain and explorer,Christopher Columbus,discovered the New World in the service of Spain,sfter being disappointed of Portuguese royal patronage.Portuguese and her sea men had serious rival in the wider expanses of the Atlantic.Now the remarkable exploit of Columbus confronted the country with a formidable maritime challenge.However ,six years later Vasco da Gama won an equal if not a greater prizefor the Lusitanian crown. On 18th May 1498 his small fleet ,piloted across the open sea from East Africa by an Indian navigator ,dropped anchor before Calicut,the Malabar emporium.The way the East round the Cape of Good Hope held out an exciting prospect,which was nothing less than the chance to liberate the vital arteries of trans-ocenic trade from Muslim political control.The early Portuguese conquistadores in Asia variably claimed that their hostility and depredations against Muslim traders and shipping derived from the state of perpetual war between Christendom and Islam .The Portuguese discovery of the route to India in fact had long and solid historical anteedants and was based on a secure knowedge of seamanship in dangerous and heavy seas of the Atlantic.