"Portuguese relations have brought about changes in our economic and cultural spheres"
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Answer:
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in India by sea, thus securing a monopoly of Asia-Europe maritime trade for a century until the advent of the Dutch, English, and French in the region. Vasco da Gama's "discovery" of the sea route to India inaugurated the Age of Colonialism, which brought revolutionary changes to economic, political, and cultural spheres in most of Asia.
Answer:
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in India by sea, thus securing a monopoly of Asia-Europe maritime trade for a century until the advent of the Dutch, English, and French in the region. Vasco da Gama's "discovery" of the sea route to India inaugurated the Age of Colonialism, which brought revolutionary changes to economic, political, and cultural spheres in most of Asia.
The Portuguese exploratory enterprise vigorously supported by Prince Henry the Navigator in the mid-fifteenth century may be seen in the context of a major event—the discovery of the sea route—that affected both trade and religion. Thus, after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, the Italian city-states that were trading in spices, sugar, and other Eastern goods demanded astronomical prices from their European customers on the pretext that it was much harder to get such goods through the Arab- and Persian-controlled Middle East. There was much profit in bypassing the traditional route and reaching the source of these products directly by sea.
Second, concerned with the threat of Muslims advancing toward Europe, Pope Alexander VI encouraged finding a route to India, which was then, albeit erroneously, believed to be Christian thanks to the exertions of Apostle Thomas in the first century a.d. The pope hoped that with the help of "Christian" India, it would be possible to attack the Muslims in a pincer movement.