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http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1301852,00.html
Crossing continents:
Japanese Namban screen depicting the arrival of a Portuguese ship c1630
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A new show at the V&A puts a positive spin on cultural exchanges between east and west. But in 500 years, have our colonial instincts really moved on?
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"In 1492, Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. Six years later, a petty Portuguese nobleman called Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India. These were, as Adam Smith called them, "the two greatest events recorded in the history of mankind". They marked the beginning of a great age of exploration and maritime trade, which resulted by the 19th century in complete western domination of the world.
Or so the old story goes, still found in books that describe how the modern world was created by the west, Europe, Britain, even Scotland; how from 1490 onwards, brave and resourceful Europeans ventured out into the great unknown, and showed isolated and backward natives everywhere the benefits of free trade, science, technology, and democracy. . . "
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