Indian Ocean Trade

Indian Ocean Trade Time Period

Although the Indian Ocean Trade peaked in the late Medieval Era (1200-1450 CE), its earliest roots can be found in the maritime trade and travel system of the Austronesian peoples in the second millennium B.C. The timeline below offers a brief overview of trade within the Indian Ocean:

• Roughly 2000 BC: Austronesian peoples expand from Taiwan, settling throughout Indonesia and the Indian Ocean.

• 400 BE to 300 CE: The Classical Empires (Roman Empire, Mauryan Empire, Achaemenid Empire, the Han Dynasty) engage in trade within the Indian Ocean.

• 800 to 1200 CE: The Indian Ocean trade is reinvigorated by Islamic Merchants from Arabia, the Srivijaya Empire in Indonesia, and the Song Dynasty in China.

• 1200 to 1450 CE: The Indian Ocean trade approaches its zenith, as largely unregulated trade between the Middle East, Africa, China, Southeast Asia, and India reaches new heights. (This late-Medieval period is the focus of this article.)

• 1450 to 1750 CE: The European Maritime Empires launched naval expeditions into the Indian Ocean, soon dominating the trade networks of the region.

Indian Ocean Trade Economic Freedom

A key characteristic of the 1200-1450 Indian Ocean Trade was its relative lack of regulation. Islamic merchants and traders sailed throughout the Indian Ocean, riding the consistent Summer monsoon winds Northeast and the Winter monsoon winds Southwest. Taxation was not uncommon, but without rampant piracy in the Indian Ocean, traders did not need policing imperial navies to regulate their every move. Rather, merchants were often organized and protected under various merchant guilds.

Profits influenced traders at every turn. Traders gained significant power over traditional nobility in the Indian Ocean through the swinging economics of supply and demand. (Much of the system would change after the Portuguese discovered a sea route to the Indian Ocean in the late 15th century).

Indian Ocean Trade Map

On the subcontinent of India itself, the Konkan, Malabar, Coromandel, and Utkal Coasts had significant trading ports for traveling merchants to visit. The rising Swahili Coast of East Africa was Africa's contribution to the Indian Ocean Trade. The lands of Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand) and the eastern coast of China also played a role. Islam, the most influential religion of the Indian Ocean Trade, spread from Arabia to China.

Perhaps Indonesia was the most fascinating of the territories involved in the Indian Ocean Trade. The Strait of Malacca (pictured below) acted as an important sea route between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The narrow channel was enforced by multiple city-states, each seeking tribute for passing through their waters. Competition led to victories and defeats, with the Srivijaya Empire (7th to 13th century C.E.) rising as an Indonesian empire based almost solely on controlling trade.

However, as was the nature of trade along the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean Trade system, survival was based on commerce rather than war or sheer manufacturing power. When the Srivijaya Empire exacted too heavy taxes, other Indonesian kingdoms with more lenient rates became more popular with traders and thusly more powerful. Srivijaya fell for the same reasons that it rose in the first place. The Indian Ocean Trade system was built on commerce and the economic principle of adjusting supply to demand.

Indian Ocean Trade Route

As previously mentioned, it was the consistently predictable Indian Ocean monsoon winds that made travel and commerce so effective in the Indian Ocean throughout all of history. Technological innovations in the magnetic compass and lateen sails further supported the post-1000 C.E. boom in the Indian Ocean trade.

Trade routes extended from the Mali Empire in Africa to Beijing in China, covering every extent of coastline. However, the Indian Ocean Trade did not stop at sea, as many coastal cities traded with inland cities, kingdoms, and city-states. Unlike wagons on the Silk Road, the sheer size of boats allowed for the transportation of cheap mass goods, not just luxury goods. Seemingly, anyone within 100 miles of the Indian Ocean and Pacific coastline could reasonably expect a timely shipment of the finest silk from China or a bushel of cotton from India, much like how we anxiously await a package ordered on the Internet today.

Indian Ocean Trade Route Cultural Transfusion

Indian Ocean Trade was the most effective system connecting Asia's distant fringes. Islam from the Middle East flowed Eastward, landing in India, Indonesia, and even China. One of the most remarkable maritime travelers, a 14th-15th century C.E. Chinese admiral named Zheng He, led seven massive Ming Dynasty expeditions into the Indian Ocean. He was a Muslim. Buddhist monks and Hindu Brahmins found purchase in Southeast Asia, where the native populations rejected China's expansionism.

Religions were spreading throughout Asia, merging in distant and alien lands. Sailors married natives of other countries. Political alliances merged distant factions under the same religious banner. Through the Indian Ocean Trade, it became pretty evident in the Eastern Hemisphere that it was not the power of nobles and kings who controlled the world's future but brave sailors and enterprising merchants.