The proclamation of the eyalet of Habesh in 1554 (although conquest of the territories did not begin until 1557), was preceded by several generations of conflict between the Ottomans, who had been primarily concerned themselves with Anatolia and Eastern Europe, and the Portuguese, who were the major power in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517 brought the two powers into direct conflict. In an attempt to monopolize the spice trade from Asia to Europe, the Portuguese, led by the newly appointed Governor Afonso de Albuquerque, "blockad[ed] the entrance to the Red Sea and the [Persian] Gulf", and made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Hormuz.[1]