While the spanish were occupied expelling muslims, portugal was?

The answer is - occupied with exploration.

While the Spanish still had problems with the Muslims and were giving their best to expel them, the Portuguese did not have problems of this type, so they were free to develop their economy and perform explorations. Because of the explorations Portugal made, they were able to find out new routes to the east, this meant free trade by their own terms, which led to increasing of the wealth of the country, and thus making it one of the most powerful countries in the world. Also because of their explorations, the Portuguese managed to get hold on to new territories and colonize them.

the first historical instance of china engaging in internationalism was during the han dynasty.[1] at the start of the han dynasty, the huns in the north were attacking the frontiers of han and trying to obtain riches. emperor wu of han wanted to gain an alliance with a country called dayuezhi so the two countries could join together and fight against the huns.[2] to obtain this alliance, emperor wu sent zhang qian to the west to establish economic and cultural connections.[2] history records that during the han dynasty there were four primary avenues of contact between china and europe. they included the northern land route, the central land route, the southern sea route, and the far southern sea route.[1] the most famous of these routes is the central land route, or the classical silk road, comprising a network of roads stretching from northwest china to the ports of syria and the black sea, which passed through the oasis of the turkestans and northern persia.[1] the silk road was significant for chinese emperors because it provided dominance over central asia by developing resources and provided new markets for the export of china's most valuable resources.[1]