Asia is a region with a rich past and a very diverse range of cultures, a significant part of which is well documented due to the long history of civilizations that shaped the region. This is especially so for the history of China as well as South and Southeast Asia, documented since ancient times in local chronicles and imperial histories, as well as by Western observers. The region defined in chapter 1 as ‘Monsoon Asia’ is particularly interesting to us, characterized as it is by a history of grandiose naval expeditions, such as the imperial voyages of the Chinese admiral Zheng He, who at the dawn of the fifteenth century had travelled as far as the eastern coast of Africa with a massive fleet. This region was the theatre of prolonged and intense patterns of maritime trade, patterns that had been going on for many centuries and were known in Europe in ancient times, most importantly revolving around the ‘Spice Islands’.