When Portugal's King John III asked for 6 Jesuits for colonies in the Orient, founder Ignatius Loyola, replied that he could send only two. At last minute, one fell sick, and Francis Xavier was the replacement. At the request of the king, he was sent to Goa, India, the center of Portuguese operations in the east. He traveled to many parts of South East Asia such as Melacca, Philippines, Japan, China and Macau to preach and evangelize the native people ( 1506 - 1552 ). His statue can be seen on Melacca Hill in Malaysia.
Starting with the first exploring expeditions sent from newly-conquered Melacca ( 1511 ), the Portuguese were the first to arrive in Moluccas / Maluku , Indonesia.( 1512 ) and sought to dominate the sources of valuable spices which were highly required in Europe at that time.
The Portuguese reached the coast of Timor in 1515 four years after Melacca was captured. They made huge profits from exports of sandalwood but eventually over exploit the resource. As sandalwood became extinct, the Portuguese in 1815, introduced coffee plantation, along with sugar cane and cotton. The Portuguese were followed by missionaries and the Catholic religion. With the arrival of the first Portuguese Governor in 1702, the colonial organization of the territory began and the creation of the Portuguese Timor
Sino-Portuguese relations developed from the first Portuguese explorer Jorge Alvares who arrived in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 1513. Around that time, Portugal managed to establish trading activities in southern China and gradually expanded into Macau and paid rent to the Ming Emperor. Fighting between the Portuguese and the Chinese finally ended when the Chinese were obliged to restrict the commerce of Portugal to the port of Macau in 1631.
The Portuguese first business contact with the Japanese started in 1543 on the island of Tanegashima . The cargo of the first Portuguese ships arriving in Japan almost entirely consisted of Chinese goods ( silk and porcelain ) . Since they were prohibited from having trade with the Chinese because of their pirates activities, they used Japan as intermediaries in Asian trade.
Christoper Columbus born on 31 October 1451 - 20 May 1506 was an Italian explorer, navigator and colonizer. Under the auspices of Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to European awareness of the American Continent. In 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he intended Columbus landed in the Bahamas archipelago. Over the course of three more years, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them all part of the Spanish Empire.
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| MORTE NO MAR - DEATH AT SEA |
Vasco da Gama was the first Portuguese explorer to sail directly from Europe to India. To India by sea meant that they wouldn't need to cross Mediterranean or Arabia and the whole voyage would be made by sea only. After decades of sailors trying to reach India with thousands of lives and dozens of ships lost or attacked by pirates, finally Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut India on 20 May 1498.
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| NAVEGACOES PARA OCIDENTE - VOYAGE TO THE EAST 1452 - 1486 |
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