Roger Crowley

I mean, I think we're seeing a European colonialism starting to take hold and it will spread effectively.

In a way, the spice trade in the Moluccas becomes a springboard for further and further encroachments.

into the world of the East.

The Spanish eventually create their own hub in Manila, in the Philippines, where they drive out the local ruling class.

And we're starting to see Europeans spreading their wings, if you like, further and further into the Far East.

There are some places which are actually impenetrable to them.

The Portuguese get a very bloody nose when they try and do trade with China.

They think they can just turn up and speak to the Emperor of China.

It doesn't work like that.

They try to build forts and colonize little bits of China.

They are brutally expelled and killed.

So, you know, it doesn't go all the way.

But what we see happening in the Far East is a nodal set of networks which allow trade to spread in all directions.

So by middle of the 16th century, the Portuguese have got a place, a little hold in Japan and Nagasaki and Macau.

in Manila, Goa, across the Pacific Ocean, because eventually the Spanish learned to sail back across the Pacific Ocean.

And then we're starting to see a very finely webbed trading network stretching across the whole world off the springboard of the spice trade exploration.

I see 16th century as the age of acceleration.

As you've said, we get these very deep webs of connection.

We start seeing plant species being moved around across the Pacific Ocean, what they call the Magellan Exchange, where you start seeing crops being introduced into the Philippines.

You've seen new types of rice being introduced into China, which is going to increase the