1. Why do you think the United States and Europe wanted to open Asia up to international trade? What made Asia an ideal place for trade?

As noted before, Asia was a large market, with strategical trading posts, and luxury products such as tea and porcelain. The quality of the Asian manufacturing was the reason for the ideal place for trade, which progressively was balanced in favor of the West.

1.) Asia is very populated which meant more money for them if they could open up trading ports and such.

2) Asia had things like gunpowder, silk, spices, basically what was considered rare goods at the time.

Asia had access to many things that were impossible to find in Europe such as various spices and Silk. They also had the technology to produce high-quality paper. This all made people want to trade with Asians and since they were pretty closed there were many middle men in trading.

Explanation:

I hope that this helped you ;)

the correct answer is:

b) a rich merchant.