2.3 Exchange in the Indian Ocean

The prophet Muhammad encouraged traveling and learning. Dar al-Islam or Muslim world might be the worlds first global empire. South Asia heavily beniffited from trade in the Indian OCean since it was so close to the Indian Ocean Basin. Indian Ocean trade had existed since 200B.C.E, but the spread of Islam connected more places than ever. Muslim Persians and Arabs were the most dominant seafarers. Calicut and Cambay, cities on the west coast of India thrived as centers of trade becasue of their location. Calicut was a huge place for merchants to trade with people from much farther east or werst. Every region in trade had a special ting to offer. India=cotton, fabrics, steel, carpets, tanned leather, and pepper. Malaysia and Indonesia=Spice Islands, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. China=silks and porcelain. Southwest Asia=horses, figs, and dates. Very long running slave trade in east Africa. Slaves from east Africa would go to India, Middle east, and northern africa. Slave trade reached its peak in 18th and 19th centuries. These slaves had more opportunities than those in AMerica. Many places still use Afrian words because of this. Knowing about Monsoon winds was essential to trading in the Indian Ocean. Merchants would use th monsoons to take them from port to port. They needed ships to cross the ocean. The triangular lateen sails were popular. Trade made the spread of sailing technology go very fast. The city-state, Malacca became rich by feeing ships that passed through the Strait of Malacca, a narrow spot where ships used to travel between ports in India and China. The sultan of Malacc became very powerful in the 1400s that he expanded the state. Malacca’s prosperity was based on trade. The Portuguese invaded in 1511 to conquer the Strait of Malacca. They were not thatsuccessful and it caused traderes to diversify their routes and ports. Many Arab and east African merchants stayed in western Indian ports. Arabs and Persian meerchants aslo stayed in east africa. The first people to bring Islam into Southeast Asia was through intermarriage. THe children were mostly raised with muslim traditions. A settlement of people away from their homeland are called diaspora. THese communities introduced different cultures in many parts of the world. An increased demand in products caused trade to expand. Places had to find ways to produce more products and be more efficient. Some places would raise money through taxes on imported goods. Trade on the Indian Ocean made thriving city-states on the coas of east Africa. These were called Swahili city-states, which means coasters. They sold gold, ivory, slaves, and other exotic goods. They sold this to the Arabs which called the place Zanj Coast. The ‘Zanj” got Chineses porcelain, Indian cotton. The east african coaast got very rich from this. With increased trade, the transfer of culture knowledge, religion, and technology also increased. Zheng He reflects this transfer. His main purpose was to display the might of the Ming Dynasty. His travels inspired some Chinese to immigrate elsewhere. Chinese scholars were scared that to much interation and trade with foreign countries would change China’s social order. They deemed other countries as lower than China. Zhu Gaozhi stopped Zheng He’s voyages and discouraged all of China from leaving China.He made building to big of a ship a criminable offense. There was a large number of pirate activities along the China Sea.