But the triumph of Portugal was short-lived. This small
country, with a population of not more than a million, lacked the strength to
defend her claims to a monopoly of the Oriental trade. During the seventeenth
century the French and English broke the power of the Portuguese in India,
while the Dutch drove them from Ceylon and the East Indies. Though the
Portuguese lost most of their possessions so soon, they deserve a tribute of
admiration for the energy, enthusiasm, and real heroism with which they built
up the first of modern colonial empires.
EUROPE IN ASIA
The new world in the East, thus entered by the Portuguese
and later by other European peoples, was really an old world—rich, populous,
and civilized. It held out alluring possibilities, not only for trade, but also
as a field for missionary enterprise. Da Gama and Albuquerque began a movement,
which still continues, to "westernize" Asia by opening it up to
European influence. It remains to be seen, however, whether India, China, and Japan
will allow their ancient culture to be extinguished by that of Europe.
