page_title: Western imperialism in Asia
section_title: Medieval European exploration of Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Western imperialism in Asia / Early European exploration of Asia / Medieval European exploration of Asia
caption_attribution_description: English: Marco Polo travelling, Miniature from the Book "The Travels of Marco Polo" ("Il milione"), originally published during Polo's lifetime (c. 1254 - January 8, 1324), but frequently reprinted and translated. Español: Ilustración del libro "Los viajes de Marco Polo" ("Il milione"), escrito originalmente en base a los relatos del propio Marco Polo (hacia 1254 - 8/9 de enero de 1324), pero luego frecuentemente reproducido y traducido. Bibliografía de apoyo: Marco Polo, Il milione, Bur, 2006, ISBN: 8817100358 y 9788817100359, 544 páginas (texto en línea).
context_page_description: Western imperialism in Asia involves the influence of people from Western Europe and associated states in Asian territories and waters. Much of this process stemmed from the 15th-century search for trade routes to China that led directly to the Age of Discovery, and the introduction of early modern warfare into what Europeans first called the East Indies and later the Far East. By the early 16th century, the Age of Sail greatly expanded Western European influence and development of the spice trade under colonialism. European-style colonial empires and imperialism operated in Asia throughout six centuries of colonialism, formally ending with the independence of the Portuguese Empire's last colony East Timor in 2002. The empires introduced Western concepts of nation and the multinational state.
  The thrust of European political power, commerce, and culture in Asia gave rise to growing trade in commodities—a key development in the rise of today's modern world free market economy. In the 16th century, the Portuguese broke the monopoly of the Arabs and Italians in trade between Asia and Europe by the discovery of the sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope.
context_section_description: In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of Europeans, many of them Christian missionaries, had sought to penetrate into China. The most famous of these travelers was Marco Polo. But these journeys had little permanent effect on east–west trade because of a series of political developments in Asia in the last decades of the 14th century, which put an end to further European exploration of Asia. The Yuan dynasty in China, which had been receptive to European missionaries and merchants, was overthrown, and the new Ming rulers were found to be unreceptive of religious proselytism. Meanwhile, the Turks consolidated control over the eastern Mediterranean, closing off key overland trade routes. Thus, until the 15th century, only minor trade and cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia continued at certain terminals controlled by Muslim traders.
caption: Illustration of Marco Polo's arrival in a Chinese city
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