[Servant of the 9]

I don't think the Portuguese had exclusive rights in the 1400s. That was only crated in the 1500s when the Spanisha nd Portuguese asked the Pope to arbitrate.

Yep, you're right.
Until the fall of Constantinople in 1452, it was the Venetians who had exclusive control of trade through the Middle East.
At any rate, the Spanish were odd man out, because they were not a unified nation until the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 and the reconquest of Granada in 1492.
The Portugese had been the great explorers of the last half of the 15th century and had grabbed everything the Venetians had lost control of.

So9

[Cronos]

The Portugese had been the great explorers of the last half of the 15th century and had grabbed everything the Venetians had lost control of.

THe Portugueses and Spanish had a lot more scruples than the Venetians. Venice built it's city on blood money. They were the ones who diverted the Crusades into attacking Constantinople to rob the riches of Byzantium. These Venetians were the ones who weakend Byzantine, makign it easy prey for hte Turks. they were also instrumental in causing the animostiy between east and west Christendom (can you blame the Eastern Christians who find that hte Franks are as bad, or worse than the muslims?)