Compare and contrast the reasons for expeditions to South-East Asia by two European countries.

The question requires that candidates give an account of the similarities and differences between the reasons for expeditions to South-East Asia by two European countries, referring to both throughout. There does not need to be an equal number of each. Reasons may predate the timeframe but they must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may refer to the shared competition in the spice trade, which drove the Portuguese and the Dutch to seek a monopoly in this commodity. To do so, the Portuguese seized strategic locations on the route to the “Spice Islands” (e.g. Malacca). In contrast, the Dutch focused on the creation of a trade-based empire, usually without the desire to seize significant amounts of territory. It might be noted that the Portuguese Magellan, who visited the future Philippines, was in the service of the Spanish Crown and Spain’s initial motivation was for participation in the spice trade. In addition, Catholic Christian missionaries (for example, Jesuits) accompanied Portuguese trade missions in order to convert the natives of the region. In contrast, Dutch (Protestant) missionaries were generally more interested in preaching to Dutch inhabitants, rather than conversion. Alternatively, Spanish missionaries were motivated by proselytising and managed to convert most of the population of the Philippines.