摘要
因传统商路被阻西欧人才寻求新航路的观点至今流行。但当时奥斯曼帝国正在崛起,葡萄牙人也尝试探险;葡萄牙人到达印度时,土耳其人尚未控制东地中海的埃及和叙利亚。葡萄牙人在西非的成功掠夺助长了贪欲,他们不愿通过正常商业手段而是通过掠夺获取财富,因此有意避开意大利人和阿拉伯人保持的地中海贸易秩序。"土耳其人阻断商路"之说源于西欧人对"土耳其威胁"的夸大和对穆斯林的敌意,舆论制造者是后来的欧洲殖民者而非早期的殖民者。
It remains a commonly accepted view that Europeans explored new trade routes only after the Turks blockaded the old ones. However, the Ottoman Empire was still rising when the Portuguese ventured forth. At the time when the Portuguese reached India, the Turks did not yet have a firm grip on the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt and Syria. After successfully pillaging West Africa, the Portuguese became unwilling to seek wealth through normal commercial dealings rather than plunder, so deliberately avoided the trade set-up maintained in the Mediterranean by the Italians and the Arabs. The argument that the Turks blockaded the trade routes is based on an exaggeration of 'the Turkish threat' and hostility toward Muslims. In this respect, the makers of public opinion were the later rather than the earlier European colonizers. The actions of the former in the Near East have exposed their earlier ambitions.
出处
《历史研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2007年第4期162-170,共9页
Historical Research
