Page 8 - Networks of Exchange 1200-1450

Trade Routes - Indian Ocean

Trade

● Between the Arabs and the Chinese, several major

empires blossomed based largely on maritime trade.

● The Chola Empire (3rd century BCE–1279 CE) in

southern India dazzled travelers with its wealth and

luxury; Chinese visitors record parades of elephants

covered with gold cloth and jewels marching through

the city streets.

● In Indonesia, the Srivijaya Empire (7th–13th

centuries CE) boomed based almost entirely on

taxing trading vessels that moved through the

narrow Malacca Straits.

● Even the Angkor civilization (800–1327), based far

inland in the Khmer heartland of Cambodia, used the

Mekong River as a highway that tied it into the

Indian Ocean trade network.