Age of Discovery

===The "Spice Islands" and China===
[[File:Malaccaship.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Replica of the Portuguese ''[[Flor de la Mar]]'' [[carrack]] in the Maritime Museum of [[Malacca]] in [[Malaysia]].]]

The Portuguese continued sailing eastward from India, entering a second existing circuit of the Indian Ocean trade, from Calicut and [[Kollam|Quillon]] in India, to southeast Asia, including [[Malacca]], and [[Palembang]].<ref name="ReferenceD"/> In 1511, [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] conquered Malacca for Portugal, then the center of Asian trade. East of Malacca, Albuquerque sent several diplomatic missions: [[Duarte Fernandes]] as the first European envoy to the [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Kingdom of Siam]] (modern [[Thailand]]).

Learning the location of the so-called "spice islands", heretofore a secret from the Europeans, were the [[Maluku Islands]], mainly the [[Banda Islands|Banda]], then the world's only source of [[nutmeg]] and [[clove]]s. Reaching these was the main purpose for the Portuguese voyages in the Indian Ocean. Albuquerque sent an expedition led by [[António de Abreu]] to Banda (via [[Java]] and the [[Lesser Sunda Islands]]), where they were the first Europeans to arrive in early 1512, after taking a route through which they also reached first the islands of [[Buru]], [[Ambon Island|Ambon]] and [[Seram]].<ref>[[#Milton 1999|Milton 1999]], pp. 5–7.</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Armando|last=Cortesão|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h82D-Y0E3TwC&q=Simao%20Afonso%20Bisagudo&pg=PR81|title=The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires: an account of the east, from the Red Sea to Japan, written in Malacca and India in 1512–1515/The Book of Francisco Rodrigues rutter of a voyage in the Red Sea, nautical rules, almanack and maps, written and drawn in the east before 1515|publisher=The [[Hakluyt Society]]|year=1944|access-date=2016-02-10|isbn=978-81-206-0535-0|archive-date=2021-11-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114161316/https://books.google.com/books?id=h82D-Y0E3TwC|url-status=live}}</ref> From Banda Abreu returned to Malacca, while his vice-captain [[Francisco Serrão]], after a separation forced by a shipwreck and heading north, reached once again Ambon and sank off [[Ternate]], where he obtained a license to build a Portuguese fortress-factory: the Fort of São João Baptista de Ternate, which founded the Portuguese presence in the [[Malay Archipelago]].

In May 1513 [[Jorge Álvares]], one of the Portuguese envoys, reached China. Although he was the first to land on [[Nei Lingding Island|Lintin Island]] in the [[Pearl River Delta]], it was [[Rafael Perestrello]]—a cousin of the famed [[Christopher Columbus]]—who became the first European explorer to land on the southern coast of mainland China and trade in [[Guangzhou]] in 1516, commanding a [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] vessel with crew from a Malaccan junk that had sailed from [[Malacca]].<ref>[[#Pfoundes 1882|Pfoundes 1882]], p. 89.</ref><ref>[[#Nowell 1947|Nowell 1947]], p. 8.</ref> [[Fernão Pires de Andrade]] visited Canton in 1517 and opened up trade with China. The Portuguese were defeated by the Chinese in 1521 at the [[Battle of Tunmen]] and in 1522 at the [[Battle of Xicaowan]], during which the Chinese captured Portuguese [[breech-loading swivel gun]]s and reverse engineered the technology, calling them "Folangji" 佛郎機 ([[Farangi|Frankish]]) guns, since the Portuguese were called "Folangji" by the Chinese. After a few decades, hostilities between the Portuguese and Chinese ceased and in 1557 the Chinese allowed the Portuguese to occupy [[Macau]].

To enforce a trade monopoly, [[Muscat]] and [[Hormuz Island|Hormuz]] in the [[Persian Gulf]] were seized by [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] in 1507 and in 1515, respectively. He also entered into [[Diplomacy|diplomatic relations]] with [[Safavid Iran|Persia]]. In 1513, while trying to conquer [[Aden]], an expedition led by Albuquerque cruised the [[Red Sea]] inside the [[Bab al-Mandab]], and sheltered at [[Kamaran]] island. In 1521, a force under [[António Correia (admiral)|António Correia]] conquered [[Bahrain]], ushering in a period of almost eighty years of Portuguese rule of the Gulf archipelago.<ref>[[#Cole 2002|Cole 2002]], p. 37.</ref> In the Red Sea, [[Massawa]] was the most northerly point frequented by the Portuguese until 1541, when a fleet under [[Estêvão da Gama (16th century)|Estevão da Gama]] penetrated as far as [[Suez]].