Spice trade

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trade routes (blue) was blocked by the Seljuk Empire c. 1090, causing the Crusades, and by the Ottoman Empire c. 1453, which spurred the Age of Discovery and European colonialism
.

The spice trade involved historical civilizations in

Eastern World.[1] These spices found their way into the Near East before the beginning of the Christian era, with fantastic tales hiding their true sources.[1]

The maritime aspect of the trade was dominated by the

Persian traders.[3] The Austronesian maritime trade lanes later expanded into the Middle East and eastern Africa by the 1st millennium AD, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar
.

Within specific regions, the

rise of Islam, Arab traders started plying these maritime routes and dominated the western Indian Ocean maritime routes.[citation needed
]

Arab traders eventually took over conveying goods via the

Seljuk Turks in 1090. Later the Ottoman Turks held the route again by 1453 respectively. Overland routes helped the spice trade initially, but maritime trade routes led to tremendous growth in commercial activities to Europe.[citation needed
]

The trade was changed by the Crusades and later the European Age of Discovery,[4] during which the spice trade, particularly in black pepper, became an influential activity for European traders.[5] From the 11th to the 15th centuries, the Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa monopolized the trade between Europe and Asia.[6] The Cape Route from Europe to the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope was pioneered by the Portuguese explorer navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498, resulting in new maritime routes for trade.[7]

This trade, which drove world trade from the end of the

Manila Galleon. This trade route lasted until 1815. The Portuguese trade routes were mainly restricted and limited by the use of ancient routes, ports, and nations that were difficult to dominate. The Dutch were later able to bypass many of these problems by pioneering a direct ocean route from the Cape of Good Hope to the Sunda Strait in Indonesia
.

Origins

Roman empire
.

People from the

precious stones and other high-value materials as early as the 10th millennium BC. The first to mention the trade in historical periods are the Egyptians. In the 3rd millennium BC, they traded with the Land of Punt, which is believed to have been situated in an area encompassing northern Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and the Red Sea coast of Sudan.[8][9]

Austronesian proto-historic and historic maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean[10]
Roman trade with India according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 1st century AD.

The spice trade was associated with overland routes early on, but maritime routes proved to be the factor which helped the trade grow.

cassia) with East Africa using catamaran and outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the westerlies in the Indian Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued into historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road.[10][11][12][13][14]

In the first millennium BC the

In the second half of the first millennium BC the

Alexander of Macedonia before he died. The Indians and the Arabs had control over the sea trade with India. In the late second century BC, the Greeks from the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt learned from the Indians how to sail directly from Aden to the west coast of India using the monsoon winds (as did Hippalus) and took control of the sea trade via Red Sea ports.[15]

Spices are discussed in biblical narratives, and there is literary evidence for their use in ancient Greek and Roman society. There is a record from

cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg revived the trade in later centuries.[16]

Arab trade and medieval Europe

Trade route in the Red Sea linking Italy to south-west India

Rome played a part in the spice trade during the 5th century, but this role did not last through the Middle Ages.[1] The rise of Islam brought a significant change to the trade as Radhanite Jewish and Arab merchants, particularly from Egypt, eventually took over conveying goods via the Levant to Europe. At times, Jews enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the spice trade in large parts of Western Europe.[17]

The spice trade had brought great riches to the Abbasid Caliphate and inspired famous legends such as that of Sinbad the Sailor. These early sailors and merchants would often set sail from the port city of Basra and, after many ports of call, would return to sell their goods, including spices, in Baghdad. The fame of many spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon are attributed to these early spice merchants.[18][failed verification]

The Indian commercial connection with South East Asia proved vital to the merchants of Arabia and

cloves are called Maluku ....."[20]

Moluccan products were shipped to trading emporiums in India, passing through ports like

Indian spice exports find mention in the works of Ibn Khurdadhbeh (850), al-Ghafiqi (1150), Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al Kalkashandi (14th century).[21] Chinese traveler Xuanzang mentions the town of Puri where "merchants depart for distant countries."[23]

Spice Bazaar used for the spice trade during the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul

From there, overland routes led to the Mediterranean coasts. From the 8th until the 15th century, maritime republics (Republic of Venice, Republic of Pisa, Republic of Genoa, Duchy of Amalfi, Duchy of Gaeta, Republic of Ancona and Republic of Ragusa[24]) held a monopoly on European trade with the Middle East. The silk and spice trade, involving spices, incense, herbs, drugs and opium, made these Mediterranean city-states extremely wealthy. Spices were among the most expensive and in-demand products of the Middle Ages, used in medicine as well as in the kitchen. They were all imported from Asia and Africa. Venetian and other navigators of maritime republics then distributed the goods through Europe.

The Ottoman Empire, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, barred Europeans from important combined land-sea routes.[25]

Age of Discovery: a new route and a New World

Portuguese India Armadas trade routes (blue) since Vasco da Gama 1498 travel and its rival Manila-Acapulco galleons and Spanish treasure fleets (white) established in 1568
Civitates orbis terrarum
, 1572.

The Republic of Venice had become a formidable power and a key player in the Eastern spice trade.[26] Other powers, in an attempt to break the Venetian hold on spice trade, began to build up maritime capability.[1] Until the mid-15th century, trade with the East was achieved through the Silk Road, with the Byzantine Empire and the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa acting as middlemen.

In 1453, however, the

which?] not wanting to be dependent on an expansionist, non-Christian power for the lucrative commerce with the East, set out to find an alternative route by sea around Africa.[citation needed
]

The first country to attempt to circumnavigate Africa was Portugal, which had, since the early 15th century, begun to explore northern Africa under

Indies was now open for the Europeans to explore; the Portuguese Empire was the earliest European seaborne empire to grow from the spice trade.[7]

Dutch ships in Table Bay docking at the Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope, 1762.

In 1511,

Spice Islands, mainly the Banda Islands, then the world source of nutmeg, he sent an expedition led by António de Abreu to Banda, where they were the first Europeans to arrive, in early 1512.[28] Abreu's expedition reached Buru, Ambon and Seram
Islands, and then Banda.

Portugal claimed the Indian Ocean as its mare clausum during the Age of Discovery.

From 1507 to 1515 Albuquerque tried to completely block Arab and other traditional routes that stretched from the shores of Western Pacific to the Mediterranean Sea, through the conquest of strategic bases in the Persian Gulf and at the entry of the Red Sea.[citation needed]

By the early 16th century the Portuguese had complete control of the African sea route, which extended through a long network of routes that linked three oceans, from the Moluccas (the Spice Islands) in the Pacific Ocean limits, through Malacca, Kerala and Sri Lanka, to Lisbon in Portugal.[citation needed]

The

Juan Sebastian Elcano took command of the expedition and drove it across the Indian Ocean and back to Spain, where they arrived in 1522 aboard the last remaining ship, the Victoria. For the next two-and-a-half centuries, Spain controlled a vast trade network that linked three continents: Asia, the Americas and Europe. A global spice route had been created: from Manila in the Philippines (Asia) to Seville in Spain (Europe), via Acapulco in Mexico (North America).[citation needed
]

Cultural diffusion

Austronesians
.

One of the most important technological exchanges of the spice trade network was the early introduction of maritime technologies to India, the Middle East, East Africa, and China by the

paráw, Samoan folau, Hawaiian halau, and Māori wharau.[12][11][13]

Austronesians also introduced many

Saint Francis Xavier, were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the East.[44] Christianity competed with Islam to become the dominant religion of the Moluccas.[44] However, the natives of the Spice Islands accommodated to aspects of both religions easily.[45]

The Portuguese colonial settlements saw traders such as the Gujarati

Syrian Christians, Chinese from Fujian province, and Arabs from Aden involved in the spice trade.[46] Epics, languages, and cultural customs were borrowed by Southeast Asia from India, and later China.[4] Knowledge of Portuguese language became essential for merchants involved in the trade.[47] The colonial pepper trade drastically changed the experience of modernity in Europe, and in Kerala and it brought, along with colonialism, early capitalism to India's Malabar Coast, changing cultures of work and caste.[48]

Indian merchants involved in spice trade took Indian cuisine to Southeast Asia, notably present day Malaysia and Indonesia, where spice mixtures and black pepper became popular.[49] Conversely, Southeast Asian cuisine and crops was also introduced to India and Sri Lanka, where rice cakes and coconut milk-based dishes are still dominant.[29][31][30][37][50]

European people intermarried with Indians and popularized valuable culinary skills, such as baking, in India.[51] Indian food, adapted to the European palate, became visible in England by 1811 as exclusive establishments began catering to the tastes of both the curious and those returning from India.[52] Opium was a part of the spice trade, and some people involved in the spice trade were driven by opium addiction.[53][54]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Spice Trade". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  2. .
  3. ^ Fage 1975: 164
  4. ^ a b c Donkin 2003
  5. ^ a b Corn & Glasserman 1999: Prologue
  6. ^ "Brainy IAS - Online & Offline Classes". Brainy IAS. 2018-03-03. Retrieved 2021-09-22.
  7. ^ a b c d Gama, Vasco da. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press.
  8. ^ Simson Najovits, Egypt, trunk of the tree, Volume 2, (Algora Publishing: 2004), p. 258.
  9. ^ Rawlinson 2001: 11-12
  10. ^ .
  11. ^ a b Doran, Edwin Jr. (1974). "Outrigger Ages". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 83 (2): 130–140.
  12. ^ ]
  13. ^ .
  14. ^ Blench, Roger (2004). "Fruits and arboriculture in the Indo-Pacific region". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 24 (The Taipei Papers (Volume 2)): 31–50.
  15. ^ Shaw 2003: 426
  16. ^ The Medieval Spice Trade and the Diffusion of the Chile Gastronomica Spring 2007 Vol. 7 Issue 2
  17. ^ Rabinowitz, Louis (1948). Jewish Merchant Adventurers: A Study of the Radanites. London: Edward Goldston. pp. 150–212.
  18. ^ "The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman – The Arabian Nights – The Thousand and One Nights – Sir Richard Burton translator". Classiclit.about.com. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2011-09-16.
  19. ^ Donkin 2003: 59
  20. ^ Donkin 2003: 88
  21. ^ a b Donkin 2003: 92
  22. ^ a b Donkin 2003: 91–92
  23. ^ Donkin 2003: 65
  24. ^ Armando Lodolini, Le repubbliche del mare, Roma, Biblioteca di storia patria, 1967.
  25. ^ "International School History - MYP History". www.internationalschoolhistory.net. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  26. ^ Pollmer, Priv.Doz. Dr. Udo. "The spice trade and its importance for European expansion". Migration and Diffusion. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  27. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Bartolomeu Dias Retrieved November 29, 2007
  28. ^ Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History, Milton, Giles (1999), pp. 5–7
  29. ^ .
  30. ^ .
  31. ^ .
  32. .
  33. .
  34. .
  35. .
  36. ^ Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (1994). "Traditional Arrowroot Production and Utilization in the Marshall Islands". Journal of Ethnobiology. 14 (2): 211–234.
  37. ^ .
  38. .
  39. ^ a b Zumbroich, Thomas J. (2007–2008). "The origin and diffusion of betel chewing: a synthesis of evidence from South Asia, Southeast Asia and beyond". eJournal of Indian Medicine. 1: 87–140.
  40. .
  41. .
  42. ^ Donkin 2003: 67
  43. ^ Donkin 2003: 69
  44. ^ a b c Corn & Glasserman 1999
  45. ^ Corn & Glasserman 1999: 105
  46. ^ Collingham 56: 2006
  47. ^ Corn & Glasserman 1999: 203
  48. ^ Vinod Kottayil Kalidasan, 'The Routes of Pepper: Colonial Discourses around the Spice Trade in Malabar', Kerala Modernity: Ideasa, Spaces and Practices in Transition, Ed. Shiju Sam Varughese and Satheese Chandra Bose, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2015. For the link: "Orient Blackswan PVT. LTD". Archived from the original on 2015-04-13. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  49. ^ Collingham 245: 2006
  50. .
  51. ^ Collingham 61: 2006
  52. ^ Collingham 129: 2006
  53. ^ "Opium Throughout History | The Opium Kings | FRONTLINE | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  54. ^ Burger, M. (2003), The Forgotten Gold? The Importance of the Dutch opium trade in the Seventeenth Century

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Media related to Spice trade at Wikimedia Commons