Yet until the mid-nineteenth century, Europeans hardly dominated the eastern hemisphere. They conquered geographically important coastal regions of the Philippines and Indonesia, where they established new entrepôts like Manila and Batavia, and Dutch merchants subdued many of the important spice-bearing islands of southeast Asia. But Europeans were unable to force their way into the largest markets: in India they had to compete alongside merchants from other lands, while in China and Japan local authorities permitted them to trade only on a limited basis.