Trade and Power Politics in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in the Sixteenth Century

Following the accord of Tordesiles of 1494, which co-ordinated the imperialist activities of Spain and Portugal, the Cape route to India, explored in the second part of the fifteenth century, was left to the latter. By diverting the Far East trade to Lisbon the Portuguese hoped to break the power of the Muslims and to punish the Italian towns, whose prosperity they envied and whom they accused of betraying Christianity. The ambitions of the rulers of Portugal, however, far exceeded the meagre resources of their country and its relatively small population (about two millions). These factors were to prove a major drawback to the astounding expansion of the Portuguese empire in the sixteenth century.