GROUP 6

JEAN MAE MIRANDA RICA MAE ANDES MARY ANN MAYUGA

Development of Nodal Points (200 A.D. - 1500 A.D.)

MEDITERRANEAN-WEST ASIAN
COMPLEX TRADE

Trade in the Mediterranean Sea

What is the Mediterranean Sea ?

•Mediterranean Sea, an intercontinental sea that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean on the west
to Asia on the east and separates Europe from Africa. It has often been called the incubator of
Western civilization.
•The Mediterranean Sea was vital for merchants and travelers of ancient times because it
allowed for easy trade and exchange of cultures and their beliefs.
•The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the
Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land : north of it is Anatolia and
Europe, South of it is North Africa, and East is Levant.

WHAT WAS THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA LANE ?

-Helps to connect the areas around the Mediterranean Sea.

-Traders in the Mediterranean used ships with square sails and oars, while Indian Ocean sails
were triangular sails and had no oars.
-Unlike trade along the silk road, Mediterranean trade was made completely of middle men

Long-distance trade played a major role in the cultural, religious, and artistic exchanges that
took place between the major centers of civilization in Europe and Asia during antiquity. Some
of these trade routes had been in use for centuries, but by the beginning of the first century
A.D., merchants, diplomats, and travelers could (in theory) cross the ancient world from Britain
and Spain in the west to China and Japan in the east. The trade routes served principally to
transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where
they were in short supply. Some areas had a monopoly on certain materials or goods. China, for
example, supplied West Asia and the Mediterranean world with silk, while spices were obtained
principally from South Asia.
Cities along these trade routes grew rich providing services to merchants and acting as
international marketplaces. Some, like Palmyra and Petra on the fringes of the Syrian Desert,
flourished mainly as centers of trade supplying merchant caravans and policing the trade
routes. They also became cultural and artistic centers, where peoples of different ethnic and
cultural backgrounds could meet and intermingle.

CENTRAL ASIA TRADE COMPLEX

Up
•Improving conditions for trade is particularly critical in Central Asia, given the inherently
challenging conditions in the region.

•The countries of Central Asia have benefited from increased integration into the global
economy over the last decade, largely driven by natural resources and labor.

•Many developing countries that have acceded to the WTO undertook significant structural
reforms during the accession process.

•These reforms have allowed developing countries to take advantage of global trade
opportunities.

•Trade relations are changing, bringing new opportunities to increase trade beyond the narrow
range of products and markets that currently dominates.

•Trade within Central Asia, a big part of which is informal, has declined in importance but still
remains critical for some countries and sectors.

STRAIT OF MALACCA-INDO CHINA

TRADE COMPLEX

The Strait of Malacca is the shortest shipping route between the Far East and the Indian Ocean.
Ships have passed through it for centuries, and trading posts grew up from an early stage,
which simultaneously became centers of education, science and art. People with different
religious backgrounds – Hindu monks, Christian priests, Muslim scholars – from many regions
of the world met here. There was a lively exchange about navigation techniques and the art of
shipbuilding.

The Strait of Malacca, which runs between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, has long been a
major gateway for trade to and from Asia, and is once again rapidly rising in importance.
Already the world’s second-busiest waterway, it has been in continuous use since antiquity, with
Roman, Greek, Chinese and Indian traders all taking advantage of this natural channel. Its
strategic importance has also made it a source of international friction from the 15th century to
the modern day. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 only increased its significance as the
Strait became a key link between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, reducing the distance between
Europe and the Far East by a third.

More recently it has served as the main transit route supplying vital commodities to fuel the fast-
growing economies of Asia and beyond. Of the 87 million barrels of oil produced per day in
2011, approximately 15.2 million passed through the Strait of Malacca, the shortest sea route
between African and Persian Gulf suppliers and Asian markets. This is some 19 times the
amount that passed through the Panama Canal and four times more than the volume through
the Suez Canal over the same period.

INDIAN OCEAN TRADE COMPLEX

The Indian Ocean

In the 16th century, European empires found out how to get from South America to China,
opening up extensive trade routes across the Pacific Ocean. Before that, however, Christopher
Columbus had to land in the Caribbean in 1492 and open up the Atlantic Ocean trade routes.
But before any of this, the world's international systems of trade were being maintained by the
Indian Ocean.

History of Indian Ocean Trade

The Indian Ocean, connecting the Middle East and Africa to East Asia by way of the Indian
subcontinent, has been home to shippers and traders for millennia. However, maritime
technology was not truly developed until around 800 CE, at which point the Indian Ocean
became the central hub of some of the greatest international trade networks the world has ever
seen. The wealth from the Silk Roads led Europe into the Renaissance, and that trade route
was only open for about a century. For roughly 700 years, trade goods from across the entire
supercontinent of Afro-Eurasia passed through the Indian Ocean. Products from the Persians
and powerful Turkish Caliphates of the Middle East were exchanged for items in the kingdoms
of Africa, which were sold to empires of India and China.
When Portuguese sailors first reached the east coast of Africa in the last decade of the 15th
century, they were amazed to find thriving trading cities, massive networks, and immense
wealth flowing through the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese knew there was wealth in China, and
they knew that during the age of the Silk Roads that trade made it to Europe, but they never
fully realized the enormity of the trade routes in the Indian Ocean that transported these
products. Needless to say, they were hooked. Portugal pushed further and further into the
Indian Ocean trade routes, finally connecting the Indian Ocean with the emerging Atlantic and
Pacific European trade markets. The dominance of the Indian Ocean trade routes declined
throughout the 15th century, but this ocean remains an important part of international shipping
to this day.

Trade Routes
Aden is a major trading city located in modern-day Yemen, right on the tip of the Arabian
Peninsula and at the intersection of the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean. Its
location means that practically anything from Northern Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, or the
Middle East has to pass through this city. Silks and spices from China enter the Mediterranean
though Aden, as do gunpowder and ideas like paper money. It's largely occupied by Persian
traders, who dominate international trade through Islamic trade networks and has even been
visited by ambassadors of the Chinese emperor.

So, a trading ship at Aden loads up all of the European products - the glass and wine and
minerals - and sets off. Its first destination? The east coast of Africa, which at this time features
a series of Swahili city-states. The Swahili people are African traders whose culture is a mixture
of African, Arabic, and Hindu customs, thanks to their frequent contact with all of these groups
along the trade routes. They live in complex societies organized around an urban center and
are more than happy to buy the wine and minerals, as well as lumber and other items. In
exchange, they sell gold from the Saharan gold trade, as well as slaves from the interior.