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The Motivation if the Europeans to Reach the Other Regions of Asians

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The Motivation if the Europeans to Reach the Other Regions of Asians

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The new knowledge acquired bu the Europeans of Asia kindled their interests to travel to Asia. For the merchants, going to Asia to directly take part in its trade activities would be profitable as they could directly buy goods from the people who made the products. For the members of the religious organizations, going to Asia is an opportunity for them to convert "nonbelievers" to their religion. Government officials found this as a chance to conquer smaller and less powerful kingdom. Scholars were motivated to learn more about the culture and technology of other civilizations. By 1400's. the mongol empire was already declining and it was not safe to travel the Silk Road. The Muslims blocked the Mediterranean Sea that was the only route going to Asia that Europeans know. Muslims only allowed the merchants from Italy especially Genoa, Venice, and Florence to pass the Mediterranean and trade with them. European nations had to be contented buying expensive Asian goods from the Italians

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Europeans started to become interested in knowing more about Asia from 1096 to 1273 when Christian Europeans and Muslim West Asians fought the crusades or the "holy war" between the two regions. Crusades started when Muslims conquered Jerusalem. This battle resulted to many Europeans living in West Asia. During this time, three trade networks supplied West Asia of goods from South, East, and Southeast Asia. One is the Silk Road and the other is the Indian Ocean Trade.Through this activities, Europeans realized how wealthy and civilized the other regions. This sparked the interests oof Europeans to travel the other parts of Asia

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Europeans used the Atlantic Ocean to find routes to the other end of Asia, because they could not use the Mediterranean. However, during the 1400s they believed that the world is flat, thus they would fall out of earth if they cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Henry the Navigator, the Price of Portugal, established a navigating school to study the possible routes going to Asia. Their endeavors resulted to the navigation of a map that shop captains might use to navigate the Atlantic. They also improved navigating devices and Ships were improve, they were sturdier, moved faster, and big enough to carry weapons including cannon.

In 1488, Bartolomew Diaz headed the Portuguese in taking the southern route to the Atlantic until they reached the tip of Africa called the Cape of Hope. The first successful trip to Asia without passing the Mediterranean is when  Vasco de Gama followed the route in 1497 and passing the Cape of Good Hope turned left entering the Indian Ocean. After 10 months, he reached Calicut, India. He was able to make a treaty with the Calicut’s leader allowing Portuguese to stay and trade with them.

The success of Portugal in finding a route in India was a big news for Europeans. Immediately, other European nation sent explorations hoping to duplicate Portugal’s feat. In 1492, Christopher Colombus, took the western route of the Atlantic hoping to find Asia. Instead they discovered a new continent. They called it New World and eventually changed to America.

Ferdinand Magellan, followed Colombus’ route in 1519. He reached the Philippines in 1521, he died in a battle against Lapu-Lapu in Mactan but the remainder of his fleet continued in circumnavigating the world until they reached Spain. Magellan’s exploration proved that the world is not flat.

The Europeans trip was not successful for the Atlantic Ocean is ice.

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The European invasions happened in different forms depending on how much they needed a certain colony. The forms are the following:
1. Colony- colonizers were in complete control.
European governments directly governed the colonies through the laws they implemented and run by colonizers. Sometimes, local people are allowed to hold local government positions. The property of the colonies are taken over the colonizers.
Example of colonies include Philippines under Spain and Malaysia under Britain
2. Protectorate- colonizers did not directly control the colonies.
Local leaders were allowed to keep their positions. However, they had to consult the colonizers before making a decision thus, the actual power is in the hands o colonizers. Territories were assured o military aid and protection from their colonizers. In return, they had to pay taxes and grand exclusive trade rights.
Example of protectorate were the Indonesian islands under the control of Holland.
3. Concession- part of territories were given exclusively to the colonizers.
Colonizers had extraterritoriality over the concessions, which means the laws in-effect in the concessions were laws of the colonizers. Therefore, if the colonizers committed a crime, the foreigners' laws will be used to try the colonizer. Having a concession was financially advantageous for the colonizers for they did not have to finance the whole territory but only the ones under they have economic activities on. However, although the colonizers inhabited only a small portion, the whole territory was under their control.
4. Sphere of Influence- small lands from the colonies that the local government surrendered to the colonizers.
This is like a small colony in which the government, economy, and society of the place was under one foreign rule. Usually colonizers, chose trade centers and rich cities t be placed on their sphere of influence.
Example of these were Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai in China.

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Most of the powerful civilizations in the old times claimed that they were the most powerful than their counterparts in the other parts of the world. Europeans believed that they were better than the Mongol Empire of India, the Tang Dynasty of China and the Islamic Empires of West Asia.because of this they believed that they have the responsibility to civilized the whole world. Rudyard Kipling called this the White Man's Burden. This gave the justification of the invasion of the Europeans and pacing them under their rule. However, to accomplish the responsibility they had to make themselves superior to their races

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During the height of the rule of the  mongol empire from 1206 to 1368, its territories included countries in east and north Asia and eastern Europe. Road network were built for faster transportation and communication in the empire soon,these road networks turned into trade network and pilgrimage route by Asians and Europeans. As a result, interaction between Europe and Asia increased.

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One of the Europeans who traversed the Mongol empire was Marco Polo. He was a merchant from Venice, Italy who went to china together with his father and uncle for trade purposes. He stayed in china for seventeen years and worked in Kublai Khan's court.

This position allowed him to travel to some Southeast Asian countries. after his return to Italy, the book "Travels of Marco Polo" was published. It contained his experiences during his journey  and he described civilizations,riches,and beauty of the eastern part Asia.

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Portugal, Spain, England, France, and Holland could get Asian goods straight from India, China, Southeast Asia at a low price. The government of the these nations were very supportive of the exploration projects. They earned a huge sum of wealth that they use in building beautiful structures and in financing the grand lifestyle of the royalties. Not only the government but also the ordinary people benefited from the explorations. Because of all the advantages in having direct trade connection with Asians, Europeans changed their motive,  from just trading with Asian civilizations and controlling some trade points in the continent to invasion these civilizations. By invading this Asian nations, Europeans would own all their lands, resources, people, and trade connections thus, giving them more profit. These European nations competed in colonizing lands in Asia. They even ended up in fighting each other to protect and expand their colonies. Imperialism is present in this, for it is the process of colonizing and expanding territories and putting these territories under their control.

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The Europeans, take the their traditional route going to Asia which was a rounding the tip of Africa going up the Indian Ocean, and crossing the Malacca Strait. In 1896, the opening of the Suez Canal made their travelling time cut short. The canal connected the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea so their is no need for them to go round Africa to reach the Indian Ocean.
And to centralize the growing trade activities in the colonies, Europeans established organizations that had exclusive trading rights in the colonies called joint-stock companies. These organizations were endorsed and protected by the government as they had investments in these.  Two of the biggest companies during the time of imperialism were the British East India Company of Britain and the Dutch East India Company in Holland. At first, the companies only managed the trade activities of the colonies but eventually Europe appointed them to head the colonial government. This brought the companies financial security and faster transportation of goods. Using the Suez Canal Europe encouraged more people to venture into business and go to Asia.

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In 1800s, Machines were invented in Europe and these made the production of goods faster. It replaced the old ways in which the productions were held in household and limited goods could be made given the limited working hours of the workers. With the invention of machines, productions were placed in factories that can house many machines and could work 24 hrs a day and could produce more than what manual production can. With many types of products were invented during the Industrial Revolution, abundant supply of goods in the European Market was present and was consumed by the growing population. Merchants and governments saw this development and saw this economic development as opportunity for more income. As a result, they extracted more raw materials from overseas colonies from Asia, Africa, and America. Colonists worked double time to produce the raw materials demanded by the colonizers even if it meant being paid really low or not getting any at all as a way of giving public service to colonizers. An example is the polo y seervicio by the Spaniards to the Philippines. the raw materials were sent to Europe to be processed by the machines and to be sold in their markets. Other continents, except for Europe, were sources of raw materials for European goods.

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Until 1400 CE, West Asia was the only part of Asia that most Europeans had seen, been to, and interacted with. Their interactions with the West Asians developed from trading to migration until they conquered the region. The Phoenicians were the ones supplying the Europeans with Asian goods during the ancient period for they had controlled the widest trade networks in the region. India and China would bring their products to trade centers in West Asia and the Phoenicians would bring them to Europe. This resulted to the exchange of goods between the two continents as well as cultural diffusion that helped in the development of civilizations of both continents. Despite this, the West Asians and Europeans tried to conquer each other during the ancient time. The Persians failed to conquer Greece during the Persian Wars. Alexander the Great successfully invaded West Asia and the Romans conquered most of West Asia. Through all these, the Europeans learned that Asia has many excellent products and its people is progressive. With that learning, they were motivated to search for other Asian regions.