Throughout the 15th century, the Portuguese Crown yearned for a piece of the Far Eastern spice trade. For centuries this trade had been dominated by the Venetians who obtained pepper, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon from their Middle Eastern trading partners, the Mamluks and Ottomans.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2025/the-portuguese-conquest-of-india/.