Monday, January 3, 2011

Spice Trade from India

The economically important Silk Road (red) and spice trade route (blue)blocked by the Ottoman Empire ca. 1453 with the fall of the Byzantine Empire , spuring exploration  motivated initially by the finding of a sea route around Africa and triggering the Age of Discoveries.
Civilisation of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greeco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the incinse route and the Roman- India routes.The Roman-Indian routes were dependent upon techniques developed by the maritime trading power.
By the mid-7th century the rise of Islam closed off the overland caravan routes through Egypt and the Suez , and sundered the European trade community from Axum and India.
The spice trade from India attracted the attention of the Ptolemic dynasty, and subsequently the Roman empire.
Arab traders eventually took over conveying goods via the Levant and Veneian merchants to Europe until the rise of the Ottoman Turks cut the routes again by 1453. Overland routes helped the Spice trafde initially, but maritime trade routes led to trade routes led to tremendous growth in commercial activities. During the high and late medieval periods . Muslim traders dominated maritime spice trading routes throughout the Indian Ocean, tapping  source regions in the far east and shiping spices from trading emporiums in India westward to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, from which the overland routes led to Europe.
The trade was transformed by the European age of Discoveries , during which the spice trade , particularly in black pepper, became an influencial activity for European traders . The 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.