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Travelers in small canoes and rafts moved between towns and trading posts along the coastline of Africa to Indian subcontinent.
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Millet and sorghum were introduced to trade. They were imported the East African coast to today's Pakistan
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Sugar canes entered India, bananas entered trade in 1000 BCE
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Alexander the Great founded Alexandria. Alexandria eventually became one of the centers for trade.
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Alexandria became the central trade and art market.
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Ashoka under rule, created trade between India and Central and Southeast Asia.
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Earliest recorded use of cloves (outside of origin)
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Zhang Qian established contact between China and India and Central Asia.
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Strabo the geographer was essential in how we look at the trading world when it was in its prime. He traveled all over the world, documenting and sourcing.
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Silk flourished with the rise of the Roman Empire
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The Bubonic Plague started in China. Through trade, the disease spread around the world.
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Portuguese sailors reached the east coast of Africa. They entered the Indian Ocean trade as sailors, robbing and extorting local producers.
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Indian Ocean connected with the emerging Atlantic and Pacific European trade markets
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Portugal defeats the Muslims, taking over the trade in the Indian Ocean.
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Dutch East India Company entered trade and monopolized trade of spices.
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The British joined the British East India Company and it led to the European powers trying to colonize parts of Asia. Resulting in the dissolvement of reciprocal trading, essentially ending trade in the Indian Ocean.