The great maritime movement in Europe discovered that the Americas were only accidental, and the real yearning was still the richness of the East. Trade with the East could make a fortune quickly, while the development of gold and silver in the Americas was a slower process.
So Portugal, which controlled trade in the East, took the lead in rising and occupied many trading strongholds such as Cape Verde, Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Malacca and Macau. Trade in silk, porcelain, tea and spices was controlled by Portugal and quickly became the richest country in Europe.
As for Brazil, it was the Portuguese who beat the rabbits in the grass and occupied it by the way, and the status of the Brazilian colony in Portugal in the 16th century was not important, which was introduced in more detail in the documentary "The Rise of Great Powers".
Spain was extremely envious of Portugal at that time, but it could only painstakingly mine in the American colonies, and then hollowed out the Philippines as a colony, and the good villains also interfered in a little oriental trade.
Spain really rose, and it was after annexing Portugal that it took Portugal's eastern trade rights and became the world hegemon.
The Dutch themselves were good at business, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Spanish Empire, which belonged to Portugal, to snatch the initiative of trade from Portugal to their own hands, becoming the third rising power, Indonesia is the most important basic plate of the Netherlands, and once occupied Taiwan.
Later, Britain and France rose one after another, britain can become the world hegemon, the core point lies in India, the rest of Canada, Australia and African colonies look vast, but the value is not as high as India.
If you look closely at the map, you will find that during the Great Navigation Era of the 15th and 17th centuries, the first rising countries in Europe, including Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France and Britain, were all in the westernmost part of Europe.
Byzantium, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Poland in central and eastern Europe, including Greece, Venice, Genoa and other countries that were once very rich, are repeatedly fighting against the rising Ottoman Turkish Empire and making an umbrella for Western European countries.
It can be said that without the death of Central and Eastern European countries and Turkey, it is difficult for Western European countries to carry out the great navigation movement so calmly.
The luck of the Western European countries is not only the protection of Central and Eastern European countries, but more importantly, the Ming Empire in the East abolished its martial arts, eradicating the sea power accumulated over the centuries since the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, and allowing Europeans to flow unimpeded between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
It should be known that this maritime Silk Road began to prosper from the late Tang Dynasty, the Song and Yuan dynasties reached a climax, and the imperial court continued to support overseas trade in order to increase taxes, giving a lot of preferential policies.
Mingzhou, Guangzhou, quanzhou are all very rich trading cities, with continuous exchanges at home and abroad all year round, and the number of resident foreigners is in the millions.
From Japan and Korea to Southeast Asia, as well as India, Persia and a large number of Arab merchants, they all based their bases in cities on the southeast coast, especially Quanzhou, which was the most prosperous.
In the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, on the one hand, there were huge exchanges of personnel at home and abroad at the level of 100,000 or even millions, and on the other hand, maritime trade was a large income of the imperial court, so the overseas situation had a big wind and grass, and the government and the public could immediately perceive and react.
For example, the Arab Empire was founded less than 30 years ago, and the imperial court soon learned about it, and also reached diplomatic cooperation with Persia, although it did not save Persia from extinction, but won the support of many countries in the western region. Therefore, although the Tang army had very few troops in the Western Regions, it was still able to compete with the Arab Empire for a hundred years with the support of the countries in the Western Regions.
And in addition to the westernmost part, almost all Asian countries, if they want to find their own history, must obtain from ancient Chinese documents.
It can be said that from the late Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean were dominated by China, especially the Song and Yuan Dynasties had the strongest control.
The Song Dynasty's territory is so small and can be so rich, we are only from today's pure territorial perspective of the biased view, if the Western Pacific and the Northern Indian Ocean, the Song Dynasty's maritime power is counted, it can be said that the Song Dynasty's territory or influence is not small at all.
But from the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, all this came to an abrupt end, Quanzhou, a unique super-world seaport, was completely destroyed, and the entire southeast coastal trade was systematically eliminated. Zhu Di engaged Zheng He to go to the West, and then destroyed those overseas trade strongholds accumulated over the past hundred years.
After the destruction of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di's father and son, the overseas trade power of the system almost did not exist, not only the trade base on the southeast coast was gone, but even the trade bases established overseas were gone.
Only a few scattered trading forces were also reduced to pirates, or colluded with the Japanese to become Wokou, and without the support of the imperial court forces, it was naturally difficult to become a great weapon.
And this happened exactly 50-100 years before the Great Navigation Movement, and the timing was very good for Europeans.
If the time is too short, there will be many people in the Ming Dynasty who are familiar with the Pacific Ocean (South China Sea) and the Indian Ocean (Western Ocean), and if the Ming Dynasty wants to intervene, at least there are many people who understand overseas. As long as the Ming Dynasty intervened, several small European ships that were still in the embryonic stage of the great navigation were naturally vulnerable.
If it takes too long, the survivors of the destroyed sea power will gradually grow up. For example, the famous Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong families started with pirates and smuggling, and once became the most powerful maritime force in the western Pacific. If the Europeans encountered forces similar to the Zheng family in the initial stage of their voyage, they would also be nipped in the bud.
The great maritime movement in Europe was exactly 50 years after the disappearance of Zheng He's fleet, the Ming Dynasty people who understood the sea almost disappeared, and the survivors of the maritime forces excluded from the Ming Dynasty were very weak and did not have time to grow up. So the Europeans were unimpeded in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and a few boats could control a small country.
In the subsequent development, although the European colonizers were weak, they were supported by the governments of European countries and the world market, so they became more and more powerful.
The former Song and Yuan maritime forces, which became pirates, although geographically advantageous, lacked the support of the imperial court, did not have a stable base and support, and once they were strong, they would be surrounded and suppressed by the imperial court. Therefore, even if there is such a huge sea power as the Zheng family, it is ultimately difficult to sustain, and can only give up the ocean.
It can only be said that the Father and Son of the Zhu Family abolished their martial arts, eradicated the sea power that could have been their own, and turned friends into enemies. At the same time, these actions to eradicate maritime trade cleared the way for the arrival of the Europeans, otherwise with a few broken ships of the Europeans, the fleet of any large merchant in the Song and Yuan Dynasties could easily solve them.
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