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Governments invested in explorations, and either lost or gained large amounts of money or trade as a result. Some merchants became rich due to an ability to now reach their demand with supply. Peasants could now become rich off of silk, textiles, porcelain, etc. Economy in countries with high-demand products in previously remote parts of the world could now vastly improve, since networks of exchange allowed supply to now reach the demand. Countries could now profit off their goods.
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Arab traders began to settle among the Africans of the coast, resulting in the emergence of a people and culture known as Swahili. In the second half of the 18th century, the slave trade expanded and became more organized. There was also a huge demand for ivory, and slaves were used as porters to carry it.
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The British joined in with their British East India Company, which challenged the Dutch East India Company for control of the trade routes. Goods moved increasingly to Europe, while the former Asian trading empires grew poorer and collapsed. The two-thousand-year-old Indian Ocean trade network was crippled, if not completely destroyed.
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By 1500 CE, discoveries in Europe allowed for further travel which caused a major increase in global interconnectedness, since the regions were previously isolated.
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The main effect was the connection between Europe and Asia and between the existing world and the Americas. These connections allowed for trade, exchanges of ideas, and the formation of colonies.
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Heavily-armed caravels rode the monsoon trade winds up from Africa to the west coast of India. They blasted through the defenses of local princes to commandeer their share of the lucrative spice trade. Successive expeditions pushed further toward the point of origin of this valuable commodity, eventually setting up ports on the Spice Islands. With control of the source, they had a monopoly on the spice trade.
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The Portuguese were eager to join in the Indian Ocean trade since European demand for Asian luxury goods was extremely high. Since Europe had nothing to trade, the Portuguese entered the Indian Ocean trade as pirates rather than traders. Using a combination of bravado and cannons, they seized port cities like Calicut on India's west coast and Macau, in southern China. The Portuguese began to rob and extort local producers and foreign merchant ships alike.
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Goods traded consisted of silks, porcelain, tea, salt, sugar, and spices.
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Trade stimulated political change as ambitious rulers use well derived from commerce to construct larger and more centrally governed states or cities; experienced cultural change as local people were attracted to foreign religious ideas from Hindu, Buddhist, or Islamic sources.
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Rome received spices, fragrances, jewels, ivory, and sugar and sent European pictures and luxury goods. Eastern Europe imported rice, cotton, woolen and silk fabrics from Central Asia and exported considerable volumes of skins, furs, fur animals, bark for skin processing, cattle and slaves to Khoresm.
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Goods consisted of ivory, gold, and iron.
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The development of the compass and plotted wind patterns gave travelers better sailing abilities and confidence to make longer routes. Multiple masts, larger sails, better rudders, and thicker hulls all gave the ships more sailing power and increased storage.
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Continuing a phenomenon from the classical age, trade routes would also spread communicable diseases by the intermingling of people. People would come to a trade post for foreign goods, where they would contract a disease not native to their region, and take it back with them. Since these diseases were going to regions they weren't native to, they were spread to people who hadn't developed immunities to them, thus making them even more widespread and epic than before.
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Use of the monsoon wind in the Indian Ocean for maritime trade was a boon to sailing ships to reach overseas countries. Sailing straight out into the open waters of the Arabian Sea during the late spring, ships were whisked by the monsoon winds on a steady northeast course, arriving on India's west coast by mid-summer. With this development came the ability to reach new places with new goods, and increased trade.
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Srivijaya's plentiful supply of gold-it's access to the source of highly sought after spices, such as cloves, nutmeg, and mace-provided resources to attract supporters, to find an embryonic bureaucracy, and to create the military and naval forces that brought some security to the area. They also spoke Bantu written in Arabic.
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Indian Ocean trade networks used ships and therefore could ship more cargo, sold less expensive, necessity products, traded with more locations, more efficient travel times, centered in India.
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Southeast Asia, Islamic people, East Africa, India, and China were all part of the Indian Ocean trade network. Monsoon trade network was also a part of the Indian Ocean network.
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Shipping in the Indian Ocean can be divided into three components: dhows, sailboats, dry-cargo carriers, and tankers. For more than two millennia the small, lateen-rigged sailing vessels called dhows were predominant.
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Harappans were the first mariners
from India who had maritime trade relations
with countries outside India. They
sailed up to the coast of Bahrain, Meluhha,
Oman Peninsula and Mesopotamia using
monsoon winds and currents, but no evidence
is available in this regard. Greek
and Roman mariners were able to reach
the Indian coast to carry out extensive
maritime trade with the help of monsoon
winds. -
Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism spread from India to Southeast Asia, brought by merchants rather than by missionaries. Christianity followed the trade routes and expanded east throughout Mesopotamia, Iran, and as far as India. Hinduism and Buddhism spread along the Silk Roads. Arabs were brought into the network, so with them, Swahili people converted to Islam.
