Page 6 - Networks of Exchange 1200-1450

Trade Routes - Indian Ocean

Trade

● Trade routes connected Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and

East Africa, beginning at least as early as the third

century BCE.

● Vast international web of routes linked all of those areas

as well as East Asia, particularly China.

● Long before Europeans "discovered" the Indian Ocean,

traders from Arabia, Gujarat, and other coastal areas

used triangle-sailed dhows to harness the seasonal

monsoon winds.

● Domestication of the camel helped bring coastal trade

goods such as silk, porcelain, spices, slaves, incense, and

ivory to inland empires, as well.