Notes

6. The Portuguese first arrived in India in 1498. Before they arrived, there was no central control in the Asian trade network, military forces were usually absent from commercial exchanges, and in general it was very peaceful because everyone got what they wanted. Then the Portuguese came along and they fucked everything up haha just kidding don't actually write that continue... and they wanted to establish Portuguese monopoly control over key Asian products like spices and impose a licensing system on all merchant ships that traded in the Indian Ocean from Ormuz to Malacca. So they used force to get spices from Asia because they were far outnumbered and could only trade valuable things to them. Ships except for Chinese war fleets, couldn’t withstand firepower of Portuguese squadrons, thus they couldn't defend themselves and they took advantage of the deep divisions among Asians and their inability to combine forces effectively in battle.

7. The Portuguese aimed to establish a monopoly over the spice trade. Since they did not have sufficient acceptable commodities for profitable trade to Asia, the Portuguese used force to enter the network. Their superior ships and weaponry were unmatched, except by the Chinese. Taking advantage of the divisions between Asians, the Portuguese won supremacy along the African and Indian coasts. They won an important victory over an Egyptian-Indian fleet at Diu in 1509. To ensure control, forts were constructed along the Asian coast: Ormuz on the Persian Gulf in 1507, Goa in western India in 1510, and Malacca on the Malayan peninsula.

8. Dutch and English rivals challenged the weakened Portuguese in the 17th century. The Dutch captured Malacca and built a fort at Batavia in Java in 1620. They decided to concentrate on monopolizing key spices. The English were forced to fall back to India. The Dutch trading empire resembled the Portuguese, but they had better-armed ships and controlled their monopoly with great efficiency. The Dutch discovered that the greatest long-run profits came from peacefully exploiting the established system. When the spice trade declined, they relied on fees charged for transporting products from one Asian place to another. They also bought Asian products and sold them within the system. The English later adopted Dutch techniques.

9. Beginning in the outlying domains, the missionaries worked their way toward the political center. Seeing Christianity as a counterforce to the militant Buddhist orders resisting his rise to power, Nobunaga took the missionaries under his protection and encouraged them to preach their faith to his people. By the 1580s the Jesuits claimed hundreds of thousands of converts. Nobunaga accepted Christian missionaries because he was delighted in wearing Western clothes and all things western appealed to him.

10. Hongwu sought to limit the influence of the scholar-gentry and to check other abuses at the court. He abolished the post of chief minister and transferred to himself the considerable powers of the office. Officials failing in their tasks were publicly and harshly beaten. Other reforms included choosing imperial wives from humble families, limiting the number of eunuchs, and exiling all rivals for the throne to provincial estates. Writings displeasing to the ruler were censored. Hongwu sought to improve the lives of the peasantry by public works aiding agriculture, opening new and untaxed lands, lowering forced labor demands, and promoting handicraft industries supplementing household incomes. All of these reforms contradicted previous elements of Chinese culture, yet Hongwu made them happen. Later rulers of the dynasty let the changes lapse.