Dr. Bret Devereaux

And they only make it to Japan in 1542, more than a century after they started.

So it's dozens of voyage.

And so each voyage like goes out, it's out for five years.

It comes back.

There's two years of getting ready.

Then you send another one out.

It goes a little further down the coast, comes back and you're trying again over decades, pushing your way around.

with the goal always being getting access to the trade goods coming out of India and East Asia, silk, spices, tea that European aristocrats really wanted.

Now, the challenge the Portuguese face as they actually get to these places is that they do not have anything those people are willing to buy.

That's a problem.

The first Portuguese ships going to India are loaded down with wool cloth, and the people in India are like, we have silk and cotton?

I know we don't just like cotton, the fabric of your life.

What are you doing here?

And so the Portuguese response is a rampant piracy.

The Portuguese have better warships.

And so they, they leverage that obviously, you know, Eldarion, at least the version we get is a lot on friendlier terms with the residents of middle earth, right?

He and Gilgalad are besties.

And so he's setting up somewhat more peaceful relationships and,

But that's also not wildly out of turn here.

Often these European explorers, they don't have the sort of military superiority as compared to kingdoms in Africa or in India to allow them to force their way inland.