Classical Period- Indian Ocean Trade Passage

Origin and History of Indian Ocean Trade

800

Indian Ocean Trade began with small trading settlements around 800 A.D. Religions introduced in new areas (Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism). Cultural exchanges, especially in the arts and sciences.

Trade Route goods

1200

Indian Ocean trade was the ideal network for exchanging bulk items, such as timber, gold, exotic animals, ivory, spices, cotton textiles, and other things that would be difficult to move on land routes.

Intermingling of languages

1250

The movement of people led to the diffusion of languages. In Africa, both north and south, over 300 languages are spoken that belong to the Bantu linguistic family. Swahili, the language of east Africa, is a blend of Bantu with Arabic. This is due to the large number of Islamic merchants in the Indian Ocean who traveled the monsoon winds to the eastern coast of Africa. As Muslim merchants carried Islam to the Indonesian Islands, Arabic words entered the vocabularies of the local Malay languages.

Mongol Empire Rule

1258

The rule of the Mongols in central Asia coincided with the peak of Silk Road trade between 600 and 1450 C.E. The Mongols defeated the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 and the vast Pax Mongolica soon placed the majority of the Silk Roads under one administrative empire. Merchants were more likely to experience safe travel. The Mongol code of law, known as the Yassa, had strict punishments on those disturbing trade.

Maritime Technologies

1300

The Chinese introduced the compass and massive trading ships called Junks which were able to carry larger cargoes. The Arabs popularized the Dhow ship which was able to tack against the wind because of its advanced lateen sail. Finally, an instrument called the astrolabe allowed skilled sailors to determine their latitude at sea. All of these advancements increased participation, facilitated navigation, and removed some of the risks of maritime trade.

Epidemic disease

1300

It is widely believed that the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, traveled with merchant caravans and on merchant ships from China all the way to London following established trade routes during the 700s CE and again during the mid 1300's CE. The Black Death wiped out nearly half of the population in Europe

Mansa Musa

1324

Mansa Musa's famous and extravagant pilgrimage to Mecca gave his kingdom of Mali wide recognition across the Dar al-Islam and served to increase trade connections across the Sahara.

Ibn Battuta

1331

Ibn Battuta was an African scholar, who traveled to Kilwa in 1331 and wrote of its immense buildings and its countless other splendors. Seven years later he arrived in Delhi with an entourage of 40 companions, male and female slaves, over 1000 horses, crates of luxury items to give as gifts, and dozens of pack animals including camels. His total travels would take him 24 years and 75 thousand miles across the Islamic world.

Growth of city states

1400

The Swahili city-states steadily grew and prospered, and were a major world economic power by the 1400’s.

Zheng He

1405

Chinese military admiral and voyager who traveled on the India Ocean Trade Route. 1405-1433 CE. He sailed from China to Arabia and East Africa seven times. He is famous for explorations, establishing diplomatic relations, and exacting monetary tribute from weaker states. If China had continued this tradition, they would have been colonizers.

Ming Dynasty

1405

In 1405, the Yongle Emperor of China's new Ming Dynasty sent out the first of seven expeditions to visit all of the empire's major trading partners around the Indian Ocean. There was a huge increase for goods traded during this period and included porcelain and silk from China. Pepper, gems, pearls, and cotton were demanded from India. Southeast Asia had a demand for spices. Incense and horses from Arabia. Southwest Asia was gold and ivory. Slaves from East Africa

Ahmad Ibn Majid

1432

Ahmad Ibn Majid, born in Oman in 1432, spent his life sailing around the coasts of Africa and Asia and writing about the Indian Ocean. In 1490, he wrote "The Book of Useful Information of the Principles and Rules of Navigation." It included facts on wind and monsoon patterns, locations of port cities from East Africa to Indonesia, the differences between open sea and coastal sailing etc. Ibn Majid relied on local knowledge to compose navigational charts throughout the Indian Ocean area.

Economic Exchanges

1449

Trade in luxury goods was also facilitated by innovations in forms of credit and economic exchange. Between 600 and 1450, China created a relatively safe method to make large payments across a vast distance. Special documents, called "flying money," allowed merchants to pay for goods or taxes without having to transport coins in bulk. From Arabs, the practice spread to Western Europe where Italian merchants advanced this method into bills of exchange.

Trans- Saharan Network

1450

The Trans-Saharan trade routes that formed in the classical age grew enormously in the period of 600 to 1450 C.E. During the Umayyad Caliphate Islam came to north Africa and reinvigorated trade. Caravan crossings of the Sahara desert increase trade in gold, salt, ivory and slaves. Islam also spread to sub-Saharan portions of west Africa. For the first time, empires emerged under the Saraha desert, because Islam brought the means to empower local kings and provide a point of unity.

Vasco da Gama

1498

Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama came upon bustling port cities such as Sofala, Kilwa, Mombasa, and Malindi as he sailed up the eastern coast of Africa in 1498. He and his crew were welcomed by most of the cities they visited, although neither his ships nor the European items they attempted to trade were of much interest in the East African city-states.

Vasco da Gama's return to Portugal

1499

In 1499, da Gama returned to Portugal and told the king and queen, who had sponsored his voyage, everything that he’d seen, including the shiploads of gold, ivory, porcelain, silk, and cotton being bought and sold in the port cities along the eastern coast of Africa.

Decline of the trade route

1500

Trading declined in the 1500’s when Portugal invaded and tried to run the trade for its own profit. Europeans were angry at having to pay a non-Muslim tax to get in on the trade route, combined with fighting others in ports within the trade routes (especially the Portuguese), decided to go Westward across the Atlantic and created competition.