Chapter 14, Part 1

During this chapter I was intrigued to learn how manipulation and the power of wanting to be involved in something says a lot about the history of this world and the power that people fought so hard for. In this chapter Strayer talks about how the Portuguese wanted to be involved in the Indian Ocean Trading that was going on between countries but had nothing to trade or contribute that countries didn’t already have. Therefore, Portugal took this opportunity to inform the countries that there was no projection for them out in the dangerous seas and therefore Portugal would offer protection from place to place in order to be apart of the Indian Ocean Trade. This particular idea that Portugal created and enforced was called the “trading post empire” and was the first kind of piracy that was invented during this time period. It was the first kind of pirating that was happening because Portugal was bullying other countries into letting Portugal “protect” them from dangerous things, yet Portugal was really protecting the other countries from themselves. It was the first kind of idea that was used by almost threating other countries. If they didn’t cooperate with Portugal they were going to face major consequences. So this particular part of chapter 14 was interesting to me because I felt like it said a lot about history is going to play out after this and how after being bullied for so long other countries will probably soon retaliate. And soon enough the Portuguese trading went down hill and the Spanish came to help support the Portuguese in the trading post. However, I start to wonder if events played out differently, and Portugal had something to trade at first rather than “protection services” would the outcome of what happened to them still be the same?