The West and the East in the Age of Exploration

The motives of the West and the East differed in aspects of international trading. According to the documents, the West, particularly the Portuguese and Spanish, was displayed as having an essence of superiority by looking down on other cultures. A motive included the need for the West to overpower the Muslims, their archenemy, in sea trading. Since Arab traders were in control of the trade in slaves, gold, ivory, and spices, the West wanted to surpass the Arab’s domination in these trading enterprises. Their other main motive for expansion was to spread Christianity. The West had a more violent way in dealing with situations and an example of this would be Vasco da Gama, who arrived on the port of Calicut, raided the town, and took some Indian hostages to get his cargo of spices. Meanwhile, the motives of the East during the age of exploration were for trading purposes, diplomacy, and the acknowledgment of foreign rulers to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese had a more diplomatic way of dealing with foreign rulers; they would give them tribute, valuable goods from China, for them to acknowledge the Chinese emperor as the Son of Heaven. They were able to deal with foreign rulers due to the capable Muslim sailor, Zheng He, who was appointed by the Chinese emperor Yong Le to go on an expedition. His ability to communicate in Chinese, Tamil, and Arab enabled the Chinese to create better and friendlier contacts with foreign lands.

The reason for the differing behaviors of the West and East was due to the fact that they had different cultures. Christianity was a religion that united the people in the West, and it served as an important goal for the West to convert as many people as they could to Christianity. Since people felt united by a single religion, they felt more superior to other cultures and this serves as a factor of the violent behavior the West holds. Christianity provided salvation, a better afterlife if they have done good deeds while in China, there was not a single religion that united the people of China, but a philosophy compiled by Confucius’ teachings. Confucianism provided a good foundation of maintaining a peaceful and harmonic empire by completing the role they are assigned to. Confucians also accepted other religions which allowed the Chinese to become more open to cultures from foreign lands.

Defending the East’s behavior would be easier than defending the behaviors of the West. This is because the East had no motive of invading foreign lands and conquering them, they were simply well-armed with a total fleet of 30,000 men for protection against pirates and threats. Meanwhile, the West would enter a country and enslave those who don’t obey them. But in the view of spreading Christianity for their country, it might be considered a good deed since they are gaining more followers of God. But it is still hard to conclude with a good justification of the behaviors of the West.