Following up on African Trade Routes: The Trans-Saharan Trade Network, this week we’ll discuss a history of the Indian Ocean Trade route. Stretching from Africa’s eastern coast to Australia’s western coast, the region is home to thirty-three nations and approximately 2.9 billion people.
"Sailing through the mouth of the Gulf, after a six-days' course there is another market-town of Persia called Ommana. To both of these market-towns large vessels are regularly sent from Barygaza, loaded with copper and sandalwood and timbers of teakwood and logs of blackwood and ebony. To Ommana frankincense is also brought from Cana, and from Ommana to Arabia boats sewed together after the fashion of the place; these are known as madarata. From each of these market-towns, there are exported to Barygaza and also to Arabia, many pearls, but inferior to those of lndia; purple, clothing after the fashion of the place, wine, a great quantity of dates, gold ..."
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The Indian Ocean is named after India and is in the middle of Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is one of the three major oceans, being smaller than the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and covers 20% of the world's ocean surface. The Indian Ocean is favored by monsoon wind patterns, which moved dependably to the northeast in the summer, and to the southwest in the winter.
Trade routes crossed the waves, linking the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Peoples and languages mingled in the great trading cities along the shores of the Indian Ocean. Luxuries like Chinese porcelain and silk, East African gold and ivory, and Southeast Asian spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and mace were in high demand far from where they were produced.
Indigo grew along India's southeastern Coromandel coast, as well as in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Cinnamon grew on the western coast of Sri Lanka. Diamonds were mined in Golconda and other parts of India, which also exported emeralds and rubies. Onyx and carnelian came from Gujarat, pearls and gems from Sri Lanka, gold in the rivers of Mozambique. Woods including teakwood and sandalwood from Malabar.
As trade intensified between Africa and Asia, powerful city-states flourished along the eastern coast of Africa. These included Kilwa, Sofala, Mombasa, Malindi, and others. The city-states traded with inland kingdoms like Great Zimbabwe to obtain gold, ivory, and iron. These materials were then sold to places like India, Southeast Asia, and China. These were Africaʼs exports in the Indian Ocean Trade. These items could be sold at a profit because they were scarce in Asian countries.
Three powerful Muslim empires ringed the Indian Ocean. The Ottoman Empire in the west occupied the territory once held by the Byzantine Empire and controlled the Red Sea trade route linking Southeast Asia with Venice. In the center was the Safavid Dynasty, who controlled the Persian Gulf Route. In the East was the Mughal Empire, covering most of India but still contending with powerful Hindu governments including the Kingdom of Kozhikode (Calicut) and the Vijayanagara Empire in Southern India.
Four blocks would act as exploiter states, eager to control the wealth of the trade route. These, by their major entry route, were the Strait of Malacca route, the Persian Gulf route, the Red Sea route, the Cape of Good Hope route.
In the fourteenth century, the Black Death pandemic devastated overland trade, but sea-based networks recovered quickly.
From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean expeditions for the Ming emperor that are unmatched in world history. These voyages were done with hundreds of huge ships and tens of thousands of sailors and other passengers.
During the 16th and 17th century, Japanese ships also made forays into Indian Ocean trade through the Red Seal ship system. By the 16th century, with the expansion of Indian Ocean routes to Southeast and East Asia, the links between India and Japan began to diversify.
Japan’s story in this regard dates back to prominent Japanese adventurer, writer and merchant Tokubei Tenjiku (1612–1692). The son of a salt wholesaler, Tokubei was 15 years in age when, in 1626, he was hired by a trading company in Kyoto to pursue commercial activities aboard Japanese Red Seal ships.
Today, the Indian Ocean Trade route remains critical to the security and stability of shipping lanes and trade routes, accounting for over one-third of the world’s bulk cargo traffic and two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments and ensuring global access to food, precious metals, and energy resources. Stretching from Africa’s eastern coast to Australia’s western coast, the region is home to thirty-three nations and 2.9 billion people.
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