European colonisation of Southeast Asia tightening Turkish control and eventual shut down of the Eastern Mediterranean gateways into Asia first prompted Portuguese, and later Spanish and Dutch sea voyagers to ship around Africa in search of new trading routes and business opportunities. Niccolò de' Conti arrived in Southeast Asia as the earliest documented European in the early 15th century. By 1498 Vasco da Gama, who had sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, established the first direct sea route from Europe to India. Central among the various plannings was to establish direct and permanent trade of the highly priced spices, that were native to Southeast
Caribbean Shores Caribbean Shores Caribbean Shores is an electoral constituency in the Belize District represented in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belize since 2012 by Santino "Santi" Castillo of the United Democratic Party. The Caribbean Shores constituency was one of 10 new seats created for the 1984 general election. Caribbean Shores occupies the north end of the peninsula Belize City sits on, bordered by the Freetown and Fort George constituencies to the south. The constituency has an extensive shoreline on the Caribbean Sea, hence its name. Former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel represented Caribbean Shores from 1984 to 1998.