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Winds and Weather
The winds in the Indian Ocean influenced the trade quite a bit. The Indian Ocean has a Monsoon weather pattern. This means that the winds go one way for half of the year and the opposite direction for the second half of the year. While the winds are changing direction it is very stormy in India and on the ocean. The boats back then were not equipped to go straight into the wind. Even if they were the most advanced ships for their time it still took them twice as long to sail into the wind as to sail with the wind. This meant that the trading boats would get to their destination, across the Indian Ocean , and then they would have to wait for the storms to pass and the winds to change.
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/indianocean/group5/james02.html Portuguese and Vasco Da Gama
The Portuguese took over 50 years voyaging farther and farther down the west coast of Africa searching for gold, ivory, pepper and controlling the coast for their own profit. For the Portuguese to ever bring home silks and spices of china, Southeast Asia and India , they would have to reach and cross the seas on the far side of Africa which had been controlled by the Muslims of Arabia for hundreds of years. Vasco da Gama was chosen to head the journey to India in 1497. Once Gama had passed the equator, he took a new route that led his fleet far out into the Atlantic Ocean , unlike Cao and Diaz. The Southeast Trade Winds prevented Gama from sticking to the coast although he did meet up with the Westerlies once he had gone far enough south. They reached Calicut (a major trading post in India ) on May 20, 1498 . Calicut was heavily influenced by Arabs. And although the Arabs would not trade with the Portuguese, they did build up a ration of food, spices and jewels. The winds returning from India were not favorable and it took the ships three months to return to the African coast where it had only taken them 23 days to cross before. Vasco da Gama was not only a great seaman and navigator but also a founder of one of the first European trade empires. Soon after Da Gama's return the Portuguese took over the Arab's control of the Indian sea trade. For a brief time the Portuguese controlled the spice trade and the Moluccan Islands.
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342WorldHistoryModern.htm Major Ports
Along the east coast of Africa, in the Swahili city-states were, Arabs were still trading with India. They were exporting goods from inland Africa. When the Portuguese came through they took over many of these ports. One of the many they took over was located at Mombassa, and that is where they started Fort Jesus . While the Portuguese were in control of these city-states, they didn't have to do any of the trading or other work themselves. They had the Arabs run the area, and the Portuguese would just come in to take all the profits. The Portuguese also went into the Red Sea and established the port of Hormuz . Because Hormuz was located in the Red Sea they would then trade those goods up into the Mediterranean Sea . The Moluccan Islands main prosperity was in the spice trade because of their location, which is between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean . This was the original place the Europeans came for spices and their fame was quickly spread. Probably Portugal 's most important trade center was Mallaca, on the Malay Peninsula . Mallaca became the center of all the spice trade. Spices from all over the Spice Islands (now known as Indonesia ) were shipped first to Mallaca and from there were exported to the rest of the world. Mallaca was also the main place that traders would stop to wait for the winds to change. Main Trade Routes
Before 1500, and before they found a way to round the Cape of Good Hope (southern tip of Africa ), much of the trade was done over land. However, when the Ming Dynasty started all of the over land trade routes to China were blocked off. There were still over land routes to India , but there was a very high risk of losing the trade goods from people raiding their caravans. So, many times they chose to trade over sea. One of the sea routes involved coming from the Spice Islands , across the Indian Ocean then up through the Red Sea . However, at the end of the Red Sea there isn't much that traders wanted, traders would then have to go over land for about 200 miles. Then get into another boat to sail across the Mediterranean, to their destination. This is a huge hassle, and, in addition, the Red Sea is fairly narrow. When boats went through the Red Sea it was very easy for someone to hurt the boat, or even sink it and take the trade goods off the boat. Often the boats would try to stay in the open sea, for this very reason. The only way to stay in the open sea all the way from Mallaca to Portugal was to round the Cape of Good Hope . While the distance of this route was about 5 times as long, it didn't take that much longer because the boats were just sailing the whole time. By around 1550 almost all of Portugal 's boats were sailing around Africa . Many of the other European countries, who got into the Indian Ocean trade later, also used this route.
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/indianocean/group1/lyman.html Silk Trade and Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of routes that were used to trade between Asia , the Middle East and Europe . It is called the Silk Road because China's main export was silk. Caravans were used to transport the goods along the roads. The trip required organization for traveling from town to town. The road started in Changan and ended in Constantinople . It passed by commercial cities such as Samarkand and Kashgar. The Silk Road reached it's height during the Mongolian empire around the 13 th century. Silk, gold, jade, tea and spices were the main goods traded along this route. Religions, such as Buddhism and Islam were also spread because of this road. The Silk Road was used less and less and eventually collapsed. There were two main reasons for its downfall. The first was the advancements in ship technology, which made it much easier to do the same routes by sea. The second was that all the land routes to China were cut off by their emperor. This meant that either you traded with China by sea or you didn't trade with them at all. Since China was the main silk provider for the world, not trading with China would mean that your country wouldn't have any silk. http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/silkroad/ Dutch and English Trade
The British East India Company was established in 1600 and in 1602 the Dutch East India Company was started. Each of these were started to get their countries into the spice trade. Both companies were very successful. The Dutch company was more successful in the beginning. Between 1650 and 1700 the Dutch East India Company took over many small areas along the coast of the Indian Ocean . One of these was at the Cape of Good Hope . The Dutch turned this area into a pit stop where European ships could stop and restock on foods and take a rest before going on to their destination. Soon after this started many Europeans moved down to this area and started the colony of South Africa . However, around 1750 the Dutch East India Company started losing money. In 1780 they fought a war against England and lost, which basically gave England the right to the spice trade that the Dutch previously had control of.
Sites I Found Useful: www.copernican-series.com/sss/chaos.html www.astaspice.org/history/history_01.htm http://www.turnerlearning.com/cnn/millennium/ep4/ep4_wc.html#trade http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h17-emp.html http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/indianocean/group1/lyman.html http://www.vigyanprasar.com/comcom/spicetimeline.htm http://www.bartleby.com/67/840.html http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/specialprojects/voc/voc.htm |
