1.2: The Indian Ocean World

Sea-Based Trade in 1500

In the 1500s, the two most intensive areas of interaction in the world were the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The famed Silk Roads that connected east and west Asia still carried significant amounts of wealth, but it was the maritime routes that now carried most of the long-distance trade. Although water travel is far from safe, it allowed people and goods to be moved more quickly, more safely, in greater bulk, at greater speeds, and, as a result, more cheaply than land transport. Even with these advantages, the shipping routes were still mostly used for the carrying of luxury goods including spices, porcelain, aromatics, animal products, and textiles to be consumed by elites across the Afro-Eurasian system. Most of these products were produced in areas that were accessible to the Indian Ocean and thus the balance of trade always tended to fall on the eastern side of this system.

The Indian Ocean encompasses a very large area that stretches nearly five thousand miles from east to west. Despite this distance, across the centuries mariners had discovered its secrets, allowing ships to navigate its waters remarkably quickly. The Indian Ocean offers an important lesson on the significance of the natural world on human history. That is because the key force in determining so much about the operation of this region was not a particular state or empire, but the wind system known as the monsoons. These variable winds shifted throughout the year but generally blew south/southwest from the Asian continent and across East Africa for half the year – called the winter monsoon – and north/northeast for the other half of the year – the summer monsoon. Ships that wanted to travel west would wait for the summer monsoons to begin and could not return to the east until the winter monsoon season. For this reason, the winds were predictable. Figure 1.2.1 shows that the monsoon winds in the western half of the Indian Ocean blow from the east to west from November to February and from west to east April to September.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Monsoon Wind System, Manda Kharo, in the Public Domain

Indian Ocean Cultures

By imposing these schedules on travel, the monsoon patterns impacted more than just the economy of the Indian Ocean. For one, they created a set of three broad cultural zones. In the westernmost portion that included Arabia, the East African coast, and the western coast of India, it was Muslim merchants who predominated. The middle portion included both coasts of India east through Southeast Asia and was strongly influenced by Indian merchants. These merchants carried many influences with them throughout the region including architectural styles and Hindu and Buddhist ideas. Eventually, this middle zone would become more thoroughly Islamicized, but this process was still in its early stages in the 15th century. Finally, the third section connected the South China Sea with the eastern portion of the Indian Ocean. Chinese influence was strongest here both in terms of the significance of the Chinese as producers and consumers of the goods that circulated here and the large number of Chinese merchant communities that dotted the region. Even though it was not uncommon for individuals to move across the entirety of the system, the nature of the Monsoon patterns tended to maintain loose barriers between these zones.

The Indian Ocean world was filled with diasporic communities who were foreign merchants that learned the language, customs, and commercial ways of their hosts. At the same time, these diaspora merchants maintained their original culture. They were bicultural and had one foot in each world. Therefore, diasporic communities could do business in their host countries and then trade with other merchants who shared their culture and ethnicity. By 1500, these merchants set up a whole series of trade settlements in alien towns. Diasporic trading firms were family-based and shared a single language and religion. Although Muslims were the most numerous of the Indian Ocean traders, merchants from different religions often worked together. Muslim firms owned the ships used by Jewish traders. Until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500s, no power in the Indian Ocean ever made a sustained effort to control the sea lanes.

Review Questions

• What were some of the ways that the monsoon wind system impacted trade and interaction in the Indian Ocean world?
• Why was the Indian Ocean so significant to the Afro-Eurasian world system?