histoy G-10 E

10. Sri Lanka and the Western World

Introduction

The Europeans paid their attention to Eastern

countries as a result of the new revival in the

trade centred on the Southern Europe from

the beginning of the second millennium A.D.

The purpose of it was to use the resources in

those countries for trade.

Some specialties can be seen in the way

Sri Lanka, which had a long history in

connection with the trading in the Indian

Ocean, acted with the European nations. There

was a series of remonstrance in the relations

between Sri Lanka and the Western world in

this period since the political motives emerged

more than the commercial purposes. A series

of reactions between the remonstrances of

the natives against the domination of the

foreigners could be seen in this period. It is

expected to discuss those facts in this lesson.

10.1 Arrival of the Portuguese in Asia

There were three main routes through which
Asia and Europe continued their trade relations
from the distant past.

1. The Silk Route which led from the city of
   Constantinople through Persia, the Central Asia
   to China.


2. The route which led from Constantinople to
   Egypt through the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea
   to the Indian Ocean.


3. The route which led from Constantinople
   through Bagdad, the Persian Gulf to the Western
   coast of India.

They used ships in the sea and the caravans on

land to transport the commodities when they

made their trade relations. By the mediaeval

period, the monopoly of trades in Asia was in the

hands of the Muslims. The Muslims made a great

profit by collecting the commodities including

spices in Asia and selling them to Europeans.

As all three trade routes above mentioned had

connected with the city of Constantinople, that

city which was under the European Christian

believers, had become the main centre of the

East and West trading. But, when this city was

captured by the Turks who followed the Islam

religion in 1453, it was a great blow to the

traditional trading between Asia and Europe.

The European Christians suffered a great loss,

due to the capture of the city of Constantinople

(present day Istanbul) by the Muslims. The

Muslims who captured the city created many

difficulties to the Europeans by increasing

the prices of Asian spices, creating a dearth of

commodities and not supplying the commodities

in time. As the Europeans had got used to

consume Asian spices for a long time, there was a

great demand for the spices including cinnamon

and pepper. The Europeans faced a challenge in

finding new routes to reach Asia since all the

aforementioned trade routes were under the

Islamic followers. In this effort, the Portuguese

acted as pioneers.

The motherland of the Portuguese was Portugal.

Portugal is a country situated in the Iberian

Peninsula in South-West Europe. And also

Portugal is located facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore, the Portuguese had to run their

foreign relations through sea routes. As a result,

they showed a great competence in sea affairs

from the distant past. Prince Henry alias the

Henry the Navigator, who lived in Portugal in