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
Four Shores Four Shores Four Shores (released March 2006) is an album from the Latvian band Brainstorm. It is the fourth album by the band in English and follows the Latvian version of this album Četri krasti, which was released in May 2005. The album contains 12 songs, from which 10 are in English and 2 in Russian. The lead single of this album "Thunder without Rain" became popular in Eastern Europe and video of this song had a heavy airplay on MTV Europe and European VH1. In late 2006, "Tin Drums" reached the #1 position in the MTV Baltic Charts. A