During the 16th century, Spain and Portugal explored
the world's seas and opened world-wide oceanic trade
routes.
• Philip II of Spain, Dom Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand
Magellan, Christopher Columbus
• the continuing expansion of international commerce
and the consequent rise of new exchange centres.
• the island world - proliferation of trading centresgrowing
world demand for the region's products.
• the expanding market for fine spices encouraged
Javanese, Malay and Chinese traders to deal directly
with sources of supply in the eastern islands.
The rise of new ports was further stimulated by the
arrival of Europeans in search of spices and by the
Portuguese defeat of Melaka in 1511 which saw the
flight of Muslim trade to other centres.
• Pattani, on the east coast of the Malay peninsula, was a
strategic meeting point for Malay and Chinese vessels
• The loosening of ties between overlord and vassal was
equally apparent on Java's north coast, where a
number of harbours were well placed to benefit from
participation in the spice trade and the diversion of
Muslims from Melaka.
• Around 1527 that a coalition of these ports, led by
Demak, defeated Majapahit and established their own
independence
Ayutthaya had been able to take advantage of growing
maritime commerce as a result of administrative
reorganization under King Trailok (r. 1448-88). A new
ministry, the Mahatthai, was established to supervise civil
matters and to oversee foreign affairs and trade.
• In the early sixteenth century some Portuguese ranked
Ayutthaya with the most powerful continental empires in
Asia, and its prosperity was such that later Thai chroniclers
regarded this period as a golden age.
• the rise of small but thriving exchange centres gave a new
impulse towards the development of larger groupings,
especially in the Philippines and eastern Indonesia. In these
areas there had previously been little need or incentive to
move towards the formation of 'kingdoms', but a more
commercialized environment made increasingly obvious
the value of some form of economic and political
cooperation in order to strengthen links with wider trading
networks