Editing Western imperialism in Asia (section)

===Portuguese monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean and Asia===
[[File:Retrato de Afonso de Albuquerque (após 1545) - Autor desconhecido.png|thumb|left|upright|[[Afonso de Albuquerque]]]]

In 1509, the Portuguese under [[Francisco de Almeida]] won the decisive [[battle of Diu]] against a joint [[Burji dynasty|Mamluk]] and Arab fleet sent to expel the Portuguese of the Arabian Sea. The victory enabled Portugal to implement its strategy of controlling the Indian Ocean.

Early in the 16th century, [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] emerged as the Portuguese colonial viceroy most instrumental in consolidating Portugal's holdings in Africa and in Asia. He understood that Portugal could wrest commercial supremacy from the Arabs only by force, and therefore devised a plan to establish forts at strategic sites which would dominate the trade routes and also protect Portuguese interests on land. In 1510, he [[Portuguese conquest of Goa|conquered Goa]] in India, which enabled him to gradually consolidate control of most of the commercial traffic between Europe and Asia, largely through trade; Europeans started to carry on trade from forts, acting as foreign merchants rather than as settlers. In contrast, early European expansion in the "[[West Indies]]", (later known to Europeans as a separate continent from Asia that they would call the "[[Americas]]") following the 1492 voyage of [[Christopher Columbus]], involved heavy settlement in colonies that were treated as political extensions of the mother countries.

Lured by the potential of high profits from another expedition, the Portuguese established a permanent base in [[History of Kochi|Cochin]], south of the Indian trade port of [[Calicut (kingdom)|Calicut]] in the early 16th century. In 1510, the Portuguese, led by [[Afonso de Albuquerque]], seized Goa on the coast of India, which [[Portugal]] held until 1961, along with [[Diu, India|Diu]] and [[Daman district, India|Daman]] (the remaining territory and enclaves in India from a former network of coastal towns and smaller fortified trading ports added and abandoned or lost centuries before). The Portuguese soon acquired a monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean.

Portuguese viceroy Albuquerque (1509–1515) resolved to consolidate Portuguese holdings in Africa and Asia, and secure control of trade with the [[East Indies]] and China. His first objective was [[Malacca]], which controlled the narrow strait through which most Far Eastern trade moved. [[Capture of Malacca (1511)|Captured in 1511]], Malacca became the springboard for further eastward penetration, starting with the voyage of [[António de Abreu]] and [[Francisco Serrão]] in 1512, ordered by Albuquerque, to the Moluccas. Years later the first trading posts were established in the [[Moluccas]], or "Spice Islands", which was the source for some of the world's most hotly demanded spices, and from there, in [[Makassar]] and some others, but smaller, in the [[Lesser Sunda Islands]]. By 1513–1516, the first Portuguese ships had reached [[Guangdong|Canton]] on the southern coasts of China.

[[File:Portuguese discoveries and explorationsV2en.png|thumb|upright=2.8|[[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese expeditions]] 1415–1542: arrival places and dates; Portuguese [[spice trade]] routes in the [[Indian Ocean]] (blue); territories of the [[Portuguese empire]] under [[King John III of Portugal|King John III]] rule (green)]]
In 1513, after the failed attempt to conquer [[Aden]], Albuquerque entered with an armada, for the first time for Europeans by the ocean via, on the [[Red Sea]]; and in 1515, Albuquerque consolidated the Portuguese hegemony in the [[Persian Gulf]] gates, already begun by him in 1507, with the domain of [[Muscat, Oman|Muscat]] and [[Ormuz]]. Shortly after, other fortified bases and forts were annexed and built along the Gulf, and in 1521, through a military campaign, the Portuguese annexed [[Bahrain]].

The Portuguese conquest of Malacca triggered the [[Malayan–Portuguese war]]. In 1521, [[Ming dynasty]] China defeated the Portuguese at the [[Battle of Tunmen]] and then defeated the Portuguese again at the [[Battle of Xicaowan]]. The Portuguese tried to establish trade with China by illegally smuggling with the pirates on the offshore islands{{Which|date=August 2016}} off the coast of [[Zhejiang]] and [[Fujian]], but they were driven away by the [[Ming]] navy in the 1530s-1540s.

In 1557, China decided to lease [[Portuguese Macau|Macau]] to the Portuguese as a place where they could dry goods they transported on their ships, which they held until 1999. The Portuguese, based at Goa and Malacca, had now established a lucrative maritime empire in the Indian Ocean meant to monopolize the [[spice trade]]. The Portuguese also began a channel of trade with the Japanese, becoming the first recorded Westerners to have visited Japan. This contact introduced Christianity and firearms into Japan.

In 1505, (also possibly before, in 1501), the Portuguese, through [[Lourenço de Almeida]], the son of Francisco de Almeida, reached [[Ceylon]]. The Portuguese founded a fort at the city of [[Colombo]] in 1517 and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas and inland. In a series of military conflicts and political maneuvers, the Portuguese extended their control over the [[Sinhala Kingdom|Sinhalese kingdoms]], including [[Jaffna Kingdom|Jaffna]] (1591), [[Kingdom of Raigama|Raigama]] (1593), [[Kingdom of Sitawaka|Sitawaka]] (1593), and [[Kingdom of Kotte|Kotte]] (1594)- However, the aim of unifying the entire island under Portuguese control faced the [[Kingdom of Kandy]]`s fierce resistance.<ref name="Fernando2013">{{cite book|author=Jude Lal Fernando|title=Religion, Conflict and Peace in Sri Lanka: The Politics of Interpretation of Nationhoods|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWInAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135|date=11 June 2013|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-643-90428-7|page=135}}</ref> The Portuguese, led by [[Pedro Lopes de Sousa]], launched a full-scale military invasion of the kingdom of Kandy in the [[Campaign of Danture]] of 1594. The invasion was a disaster for the Portuguese, with their entire army wiped out by Kandyan [[guerrilla warfare]].<ref name="Perera2007">{{cite book|author=C. Gaston Perera|title=Kandy fights the Portuguese: a military history of Kandyan resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hgtuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Danture%22%20%221594%22|year=2007|publisher=Vijitha Yapa Publications|isbn=978-955-1266-77-6|page=148}}</ref><ref name="Obeyesekere1999">{{cite book|author=Donald Obeyesekere|title=Outlines of Ceylon History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cDwvQF_OgvMC&pg=PA232|year=1999|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-1363-8|page=232}}</ref> [[Constantino de Sá de Noronha|Constantino de Sá]], romantically celebrated in the 17th century Sinhalese Epic (also for its greater humanism and tolerance compared to other governors) led the last military operation that also ended in disaster. He died in the [[Battle of Randeniwela]], refusing to abandon his troops in the face of total annihilation.<ref>[http://www.ceylontoday.lk/64-92267-news-detail-rasin-deviyo.html Rasin Deviyo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222130125/http://www.ceylontoday.lk/64-92267-news-detail-rasin-deviyo.html |date=2015-12-22 }} - Chandra Tilake Edirisuriya (Ceylon Today) Accessed 2015-12-13</ref>

The energies of Castile (later, the ''unified'' Spain), the other major colonial power of the 16th century, were largely concentrated on the Americas, not South and East Asia, but the Spanish did establish a footing in the Far East in the Philippines. After fighting with the Portuguese by the Spice Islands since 1522 and the agreement between the two powers in 1529 (in the treaty of Zaragoza), the Spanish, led by [[Miguel López de Legazpi]], settled and conquered gradually the Philippines since 1564. After the discovery of the return voyage to the Americas by [[Andres de Urdaneta]] in 1565, cargoes of Chinese goods were transported from the [[Philippines]] to [[Mexico]] and from there to [[Spain]]. By this long route, Spain reaped some of the profits of Far Eastern commerce. Spanish officials converted the islands to Christianity and established some settlements, permanently establishing the Philippines as the area of East Asia most oriented toward the West in terms of culture and commerce. The Moro Muslims fought against the Spanish for over three centuries in the [[Spanish–Moro conflict]].