•'Siam and its continental neighboursremained entirely outside the Portuguese imperial design and charted their own destinies during the sixteenth century.‘
•Vietnam-Unlike any other Southeast Asian people, the Vietnamese had experienced centuries of Chinese domination which, while infusing their lives with aspects of China's culture, had also enabled them to conceive of themselves as clearly non-Chinese.
•When both sides appealed to the Chinese as mediators, Beijing ruled that the Mac should govern the north and the Le with their protectors the south. By the middle of the sixteenth century, therefore, hints of a future division in Vietnam were already apparent.