Contemporary with the decline of the Hanseatic commerce in the north was that of the Italian cities, especially Venice, in the south. They had prospered by their commerce with the Levant until Vasco de Gama discovered the sea route to East India in 1497. His countrymen, the Portuguese, soon utilized this discovery. They took possession of the coast of India and of the islands to the south of it. They also succeeded in excluding the Arabs from the commerce with that country, of which up to that time they had had exclusive control. For this purpose they built fortresses and factories on the west coast of Hindostan, took possession of the island of Socotra in the Arabian, and of Ormus in the Persian Gulf, and forced the Indian princes to grant them the exclusive privilege of trading with their subjects. They also captured the city of Malacca, where the trade between China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, the Moluccas and India had concentrated itself. In this way they got in a comparatively short time control of the commerce of India, Arabia, and even Egypt. By forcing the Venetians and their commercial allies out of those markets, they secured for themselves a monopoly of the commerce between Europe and the east. The political ascendancy of the Turks in the islands situated in, and in the countries bordering on, the Eastern Mediterranean, caused the loss of Cyprus, Crete (Candia) and Morea to the Venetians and greatly aided the Portuguese in establishing their commercial supremacy. Less profitable for the latter was the possession of their American colonies. They, as well as the Spaniards, adopted here a policy which ultimately brought commercial and industrial ruin upon both. Entirely neglecting agriculture and relying on the mineral resources of their transatlantic colonies, which were believed to be inexhaustible, they strove to amass riches by reserving for themselves the exclusive privilege of supplying them with the manufactures of Europe in exchange for American gold. Neglecting home industries, they bought their supplies as well as those of their colonies in France, Holland and England. A spirit of speculation and adventure enervated their people, and led in time to commercial bankruptcy and political disaster. Spain also drained her treasury by her wars with her Dutch dependencies, and the loss of her northern provinces was a serious blow to her commerce. Antwerp, which had become the successor of Bruges as the commercial emporium of the north, began to decline, and Amsterdam, the metropolis of the new Dutch republic, became heir to its glory and its riches. The young republic at once commenced to compete in the carrying trade with Spain and Portugal, and to make inroads into the eastern commerce of the latter.