Background

The Indian Ocean in World History

The Indian Ocean in Eurasian and African Worlds Systems Before the Sixteenth Century

The Indian Ocean World:  Africa in the First Global Economy

The Indian Ocean:  A Maritime Trade Network Nearly Forgotten

Learning Plans

The Swahili Ocean and Indian Ocean Trade, African Studies Center, Boston University

Before Oil There was Sugar & Spice, a learning plan by Marina Amicizia & Karli Doney (December, 2022).

Places

Mecca

• Birthplace of Muhammed in Saudi Arabia

Damascus

• City in Syria under Muslim control from the early 600s until taken over by the Ottoman Empire

Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb

• Located where the Red Sea enters the Gulf of Aden.  Strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea

Strait of Hormuz

• Narrow opening to the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean.  Strategic choke point for trade.
• Today, the world's most important oil transport chokepoint.
  

Aden

• Seaport in Yemen on the eastern Red Sea.  Zheng He's fleet visited.  Occupied by the Portuguese in the 1500s

• CROSS-LINK: Zheng He and the Chinese Treasure Fleets 

Mogadishu

• Largest city in Somalia; located in the Horn of Africa.  Preeminent city in the 1300s.  Exporting fabrics

Mombasa

• City in Kenya on the Indian Ocean.  Center for trade in spices, gold and ivory.  Export coconuts, ivory and millet (cereal grains)

Malindi

• City located north of Mombasa in Kenya.  Visited by Vasco de Gama who signed a trade agreement in 1498.  Port city for colonial powers during Age of Exploration

Timbuktu

• City in Mali along the Niger River in the southern Sahara Desert.  Scholarly center of Africa.  Trade in salt, gold and slaves.

• CROSS-LINK: Political and Economic Aspects of African Empires 

Kilwa

• Island off Tanzania.  Most powerful city in East Africa in the 12th century before Portuguese conquest

Zanzibar

• Island off the coast of Tanzania.  Base for Persian traders.  Part of the Portuguese empire.  East Africa's main slave-trading post
  

Gambia River

• River in West Africa running through Guinea, Senegal, and Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean.  Central to Trans-Saharan trade in ivory, gold and slaves.
• CROSS-LINK: Trans-Saharan Trade 

Cape Verde

• Islands off the west coast of Africa.  Key departure point for Transatlantic Slave Trade

Maldives

• Island nation in the Indian Ocean.  Fresh water stop of Indian Ocean traders.  Became a British protectorate

Ganges River

• Sacred river to Hindus.  Boundary of India and Bangladesh

Calcutta

• City in east India.  Key base for the British East India Company.  Capital of India until 1911

Calicut

• Trading center in southern India known as the "City of Spices."  Control by Portugal, Holland and England.  Beginning for the Indian Independence Movement 

Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

• Located south of India.  Ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and then British from the 1500s

Moluccas

• The Spice Islands.  Conquered in turn by Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch

Malay Peninsula

• Location of Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand

Sumatra

• Island in Indonesia.  Dutch colony producing pepper, rubber and oil
  

Java

• Part of Indonesia and the world's most populous island.  Producer and exporter of rice.  Became a Dutch colonial possession.  City of Djakarta was known as Batavia

Djakarta

• Capital of Indonesia.  Center for European trade
  

Macau

• First and last European colony in China.  Portuguese settlement in 1535.  Key center for trade with India, Japan and China

Hong Kong

• Major port city.  Ceded to Britain in 1842 ending the First Opium War 

Kunming

• Trading center located in southwest China.  Visited by Marco Polo in the 13th century

Guangzhou (Canton)

• City in southern China on the Pearl River north of Hong Kong.  Portuguese takeover in 1514 who had a near monopoly on trade till the Dutch replaced them in early 17th century

Hangzhou

• City in eastern China in the Yangtze River delta.  Southern end of the Grand Canal.  Visited by Marco Polo.  Trade dominated by Arab merchants during the Indian Ocean world system

Fujian

• Chinese province located across from Taiwan.  Staging depot for Zheng He's Treasure Fleets

Nanjing

• City on the Yangtze River.  Ming Dynasty capital
  

Beijing

• City in northern China.  Captured and controlled by Mongols under Kublai Kahn.  Capital for Chinese emperors under different dynasties

Xingiang

• Autonomous eastern region of China.  Conquest by Mongols and Chinese emperors

Amur River

• Border between Russia and China.  Place where Mongols and later Russians crossed into China

Yangtze River

• Third longest river in the world.  Empties into the East China Sea.  Backbone of agriculture and transportation in China