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The monsoon wind pattern became well established during the first millennium BCE though it may have been discovered as early as 3000 BCE. With the discovery of the seasonal monsoon winds, combined with the ability to navigate by reckoning with the stars, mariners now sailed across the Arabian Sea in open water.
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Roman coins have been found in Indian hoards with Indian coins. Cloth, ceramics, pottery, metal wares, glass, beads, incense, rare woods, and spices, pearls, and coral were traded alongside common goods, and have been found at archaeological sites on the Indian coast.
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Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BCE to 300 BCE
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The Phoenicians may have circumnavigated Africa, but they probably did explore some of the West African coasts. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea from the first century CE names many ports, lands, and goods in the Indian Ocean, including information about the east coast of Africa and of India.
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The picture of trade in the Indian Ocean becomes clearer, with many more written records and artifacts. Always keeping in mind the local and regional coasting trade in all settled parts of the ocean, long-distance trade expanded greatly in the 1300 years from 1000 BCE to 300 CE.
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During the third and second centuries BCE, Indian and Arab ships are known to have sailed directly from Southern Arabia to the Malabar (western) coast of India and back. About the same time, in the eastern ocean, Austronesian mariners sailed toward the West.
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By BCE 1000 the crops like banana, coconut, and yam, and construction of houses in Madagascar.
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A major phase of the Classical Era is the spread of religions. Between 600 - 300 BCE, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism spread across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia. Pilgrims’ and missionaries’ travel accounts tell about journeys in search of knowledge and to found religious communities, collect sacred texts, and visit shrines.
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The Achaemenid Persian empire was the largest that the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia. Its formation began in 550 B.C. King Astyages of Media, who dominated much of Iran and eastern Anatolia (Turkey), was defeated by his southern neighbor Cyrus II (“the Great”), king of Persia (r. 559–530 B.C.).
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Greek and Roman sailors and traders entered the Indian Ocean after 500 BCE, sent there by the Persian ruler Darius I.
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Alexander the Great sent Nearchus from the Indus to the Arabian Gulf in 326 BCE, and other Greeks sailed to India and around the Arabian Peninsula to Oman
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The Mauryan Empire (324–185 BCE), based in the Gangetic plains of India and with its capital city at Pataliputra (modern Patna), was one of many small political dynasties of the early historic period whose development included the original growth of urban centers, coinage, writing, and eventually, Buddhism
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Mediterranean traders and mariners entered a system in the Indian Ocean that was already developed. Goods from China and Southeast Asia appear in records of trade with India. India exported many goods and imported silver, copper, and gold. Several strong states existed at this time, including the Mauryan Empire (323-185 BCE) of India, the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire in Europe, and the Han Dynasty in China.
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In 305 BCE, Chandragupta decided to expand his empire into eastern Persia. At the time, Persia was ruled by Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire, and a former general under Alexander. Chandragupta gained control of that land as well as the hand of one of Seleucus’s daughters in marriage. In exchange, Seleucus received 500 war elephants, which he put to good use at the Battle of Ipsus in 301.
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The Han Dynasty ruled China after the fall of the first imperial dynasty, the Qin in 206 B.C. The Han Dynasty's founder, Liu Bang, was a commoner who leads a rebellion against the son of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of unified China whose political career was short-lived and full of contempt from his peers
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The Regal Period lasted from 753–509 BCE and was the time during which kings (beginning with Romulus) ruled over Rome.