Those Dang Portuguese

The most interesting thing that I read in Chapter fourteen had to be about Indian Ocean trade. How it used to be free and there was no one power. I mean, how long did they think that was actually going to last anyway? There is always that one person that ruins it for everyone and thinks all high and mighty of themselves and is selfish. In this case, it was the Portuguese.  The Portuguese of all people. What the heck. The thing is, other boats were not well equipped to fight the Portuguese because since it was a free ocean, well, there was not need for big arms, just the bare minimum for the pirates that roamed the seas. But the Portuguese had big canons and took the opportunity that no other boat had the same as them and they set up bases at key locations. And when they say set up bases, it seems so peaceful, doesn't it? Well, of course it wasn't. They forcibly set up those bases. And those who didn't cooperate, got messed up. Like in Mombosa, the commander of whatever fleet was attacking, burned and sacked the city, killing about fifteen hundred people! And not just men, they killed men, women and children! CHILDREN! Talk about a heartless group of people who were definitely there for their own selfish wants; to command and control commerce. But I guess if you think about it, we are all selfish in some type of way, I guess they were just a little more selfish than the rest of us.