East Indies

The 200 year struggle between Portugal the Dutch East India Co the English East India Co for supremacy in the Eastern seas In 1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and the Portuguese became the first Europeans to sail the Eastern Seas in search of spices silks gold silver porcelains and other oriental goods Over the next 100 years the Portuguese spread their trading network from India as far north as China and Japan and as far east as Timor in the eastern end of the Indonesian Archipelago In 1595 and 1601 respectively the first Dutch and English trading expeditions rounded the Cape of Good Hope and soon the trading monopoly of the Portuguese Crown was being challenged by the Dutch East India Company and then the English East India Company the worlds first joint stock and multi-national trading companies This book follows the trade winds the trade routes and the port cities across the East Indies and the Orient The struggle for supremacy between the Portuguese the Dutch and t