Trade in the Indian Ocean region facilitated the spread of goods, technology, and ideas; the span of Indian Ocean trade reached from Southeast Africa and across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia, including Southwest Asia, India, and China along the way. From 650 C.E. to 1750 C.E., commerce in the Indian Ocean region changed in terms of who was involved and the technology that was developed, but the items traded remained the same. A little after 650 C.E., the Sasanid Empire of Southwest Asia came to an end while the Tang Dynasty in China ventured to Southeast Asia for spices and other goods. By 650 C.E., Indian merchants were also traveling to Southeast Asia for trade. Malaysian sailors had established colonies on the African …show more content…
to 1750 C.E., the people involved in Indian Ocean commerce changed. The Umayyad dynasty arose in 661 C.E. and was replaced by the Abbasid Dynasty in 750; the merchants from these dynasties participated in Indian Ocean trade using naval technology borrowed from other places. By 670 C.E., the Southeast Asian kingdom of Srivijaya had begun, and they controlled trade in Southeast Asia with the navy they built. The Srivijaya prospered from their involvement in trade, but were surpassed by the south Indian kingdom of Chola. The Srivijaya kingdom was followed by three more kingdoms, each of which also participated in Indian Ocean trade. The Ming Dynasty (established in 1368 C.E.) paid for seven naval expeditions, led by Zheng He, to establish the Chinese in Indian Ocean trade; Zheng He’s expeditions used treasure ships, which were very large and impressive. These expeditions ended in 1433 after the Ming government ceased sponsoring them. In the late 1400s, Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese sailor, arrived at an Indian sea port and in the next century, the Portuguese prevailed in trade between Asia and Europe; this marked the start of European control in Asia. The Europeans became involved in Indian Ocean trade because they desired to find a route around the Islamic Empires of Southwest Asia, who they considered the “middleman”. Government sponsorships, good naval technology, and a supply of resources and commodities allowed states to participate in and receive profit from Indian Ocean trade; they also allowed certain regions to dominate and control Indian Ocean commerce. Hence, the people involved in and dominating Indian Ocean trade varied over
In India, everyone traveled for spices as Christopher Columbus.attempted. But that was in the 1400’s. Around 50 C.E., the Kushan Empire started to take over these countries and the road after the Han Empire was overthrown. In the Background Essay, it says “Starting in 50 CE, another Asian Empire took shape and began profiting from the Silk Road. In the Background Essay Q’s, Doc B, Box 1, it mentions Hinduism.
Geography plays a key role with trade. The fourth painting that Brook shows us is called “The Geographer”. The main focal point in this painting is the globe that is located behind the man. During this time, knowledge of geography was far from perfect, but it was drastically improving. As Brook points out, the Spanish Jesuit, Adrino de las Cortes, was a great example of the moving geography of the epoch. The ship that he led was crashed onto the rocks of the Chinese coast by 1625, right after it had departed from Manila. This was completely by mistake, as they soon discovered uncharted territory. The people who had been living there had never seen any foreign people at a close range. It surprised them to see the wide span of people they brought: African Americans, Portuguese, Muslims, Spaniards, and the list goes on. This showed that the rise of the global world did not only imply goods and material objects, but also people from all
When comparing the Chinese and Western historical development, the similar key events would have very different outcomes due to their different backgrounds. During the fifteenth century, Zheng He was commissioned to lead the “treasure ships” for seven voyages down the Western Seas. And, Prince Henry sent expeditions to explore the western coast of Africa. China and Portugal, the both ends of the Eurasian continent, almost simultaneously began marine navigations. They have shared some similar features, but there are actually major differences between the two. This paper will compare and contrast these two remarkable explorers. The focus will be on the ideas and circumstances that influenced their actions, and their importance in shaping history.
Before the Modern Era, international communication was not prevalent. Many factions were present between distant regions in the world, and regional trade flourished between lands that were close in proximity. Lands in the Americas or South America did not experience a strong connection to lands further east due to these gaps in communication. However, due to the emergence of silver, regional economies all combined to form one global economy. In this global economy, different, distant regions interacted through a common trade. Silver production, common from the 1500s to 1750, helped global interactions flourish. Different regions, specifically China and the Philippines, Spain and its colonies, and England collectively experienced shifts in their societies and economies through a combined need to interpose themselves in this global flow of silver, that was then expanded upon through different methods of gaining silver.
As new ideas traveled main trade routes, such as the Silk Road and the Mediterranean, the effects of such were felt through an influx of contact between countries due to increased desire for new information and countries gaining a larger presence on the world stage. This phenomenon can also be seen through the lens of cultural exchange that took place during this same time period in Eurasia. A major component of the Eurasian trade networks, such as the Silk Road and Indian Ocean, was that they fostered interregional contacts that had ceased to previously exist. When a country had a desire for study or technology, they earned more respect on the global stage. This can be further examined by looking at Marco Polo’s voyage into Asia.
During the classical era, there were shifts worldwide with regards to economic imports and exports. As many societies transformed from hunting-gathering societies into specialization societies, global trade networks expanded. This led to the founding and growth of many complex trade networks, both on land and by sea. Two notable trade networks were the Mediterranean Sea network and the Silk Road. The Mediterranean Sea is in Europe, and the trade network lined the shores of Turkey and North Africa. The Silk Road was trans-Asian. It reached from China to the Eastern Mediterranean. While these networks had multiple similarities in their expansion and spread of religion and ideas, there were many differences. These included the type of materials
Accompanied by 27,000 men on 62 large and 255 small ships, the Chinese eunuch Zheng He, led 7 naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, Middle East and east coast of Africa in the span of 28 years during the Ming Dynasty. The scale of Zheng He’s fleet was unprecedented in world history. The large treasure ships used during the expeditions were purported to be 440 feet long and 180 feet wide (Dreyer, p. 102). Throughout his travels, Zheng He brought Chinese tea, porcelain and silk products to foreign countries and also brought back exotic goods to the Ming court such as spices, plants and leather. Although his voyages fostered commercial trades and cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, the goal of his expeditions stemmed from the political motivation to maintain the tributary system and his voyages had important political implication of causing Neo-Confucian opposition and suspension of the expedition.
Due to the immense success of trades routes such as the Indian Ocean and Silk Roads, new ideas began to spread rapidly throughout Eurasia from 600 BCE to 1500 CE. Merchants traveling along these trade routes facilitated the majority of this cross-cultural diffusion and greatly impacted the spread of iconic faiths such as Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Even though merchants were critical to the exchange of these concepts, the wealth accumulated by merchants evoked differing responses from governments and religious establishments. The Christian and Islamic
The Indian Ocean Basin was a series of trade routes that went all the way from Southeast Asia to Eastern Africa. From 600 - 1450 CE there were changes, but also continuities. The Indian Ocean Basin changed economically and culturally. The Indian Ocean Basin changes included the the spread of Islam and the fact the China’s government was “revived” during this time period. Though there were changes, there were continuities as well. One major continuity during this time was the trade routes themselves; they had not changed while the Indian Ocean Basin was around.
It was a time when seafaring European nations were actively seeking a route to the wealthy and powerful Asian civilizations. After Vasco da Gama’s expedition in 1498, Europe was linked to the East Asian nations. Lacking in resources and needing new markets, Europe eagerly began a quest to regulate and dominate the sea trading network. With ships and guns they forced their way into the trading network. Other Europeans were looking to gain Christian converts. Subsequently, also during this Early Modern Period of 1450-1750 the East Asian countries of China and Japan employed a variety of empire/state building strategies that proved to fend off the West.
1.) As a whole, the entry of the Europeans into the Asian sea trading network had relatively little effect on the entire system. The entry of the Europeans into the network led to the establishment of new trade routes in the Indian Ocean to the southern Atlantic near the Cape of Good Hope. In water, the Europeans were superior militarily, but on land against fortified Asian settlements, the Asians far surpassed the Europeans technologically. The only superior items that the Europeans had were small, fast sea vessels such as caravels, clocks, and weaponry.
In the book, When China Ruled the Seas, Levathes talks about seven voyages made by the Chinese armadas during emperor Zhu Di's reign. Admiral Zheng was in control of many “Treasure ships”. These ships traded silk, porcelain, and many other fine goods. They sailed from India to East Africa, through Korea and Japan, and might have even traveled all the way to Australia. Levathes believes that it could have been very possible for China to have been able to create a great kingdom to rule over one hundred years before the Europeans even explored and expanded, with China's giant navy of about three thousand of these large treasure ships.
The influence of trading between Europe, Africa, and Asia and the influence of exploration in these countries is extremely extensive and still a big part of the world of trading today. The first question to the prompt asks, “Who traded with who? Why?”. Asia mainly traded around the east African coast and in India, the merchants who traded with these countries traveled by sea, so this was the most logical way to get to where they needed to go. They also had a guidebook called the Periplus which was written by an unknown merchant in Egypt, this guidebook told the people where to go, what to do when it came to the trading, and who they traded with. In Africa, they mainly traded with the Mediterranean’s and the slave owners in Mali. Furthermore,
Throughout the history of the earth we have seen many countries leave their homeland. Most of these countries however, are those that are not landlocked. Countries which were not landlocked organized themselves and set sail for new territories to explore. Boat technology allowed for travel, resulting in the whole world becoming more accessible and allowing people to overcome what was thought to be indestructible geography. Obviously access to the sea lowers transport costs and aids economic growth. Yet this mattered less in earlier centuries. Even in some ancient civilizations, they learned to overcome the problem of not having technology. The original silk route from China to Europe used the camel rather than the ship. Only when ship design became advanced from the 15th century onwards did sea-borne trade gain centre-stage.
the Portuguese and inspired the search for a sea route to the Indies. The Portuguese had already established