Indian Ocean and Silk Road Trade

The Indian Ocean Trade included overland and sea trade routes that extended from China to the Swahili Coast to the Middle East. It provided easy access to cheaper and more frequent trade during the monsoon seasons because sailors could depend on the predictable monsoon winds. Cultural diffusion occurred through peaceful trade that was dominated by merchants. Technology, ideas, religion, and products also spread throughout the trade routes. The Indian Ocean Trade was the first time that goods were being traded in mass market.

Throughout early history, civilizations often sought to receive resources from afar to sustain their societies and keep themselves thriving, and to this end trade relations and eventually trade routes began to emerge. This aided civilizations in their discovery of foreign items that they may use to better their societies. These items traded ranged from complex technology to something as simple as nutmeg. The main trade routes that were utilized in East and South Asia were the silk road and the Indian Ocean Trade Network. In the 7th- 12th centuries, both the silk road and Indian ocean trade route had affected east and south Asia by the introduction of religions such as Buddhism changing government forms and altering the belief systems of society and changing how individuals live their daily lives, however differences were present in the impact that these routes had on daily lives, such as the Indian Ocean Trade Route giving rise to an entire new culture in Africa known as the Swahili and leading to the innovation of the sailing boat known as the Dhow, and the silk road led to the transmission of religion and resources throughout Eurasia and it led to utilization of caravans and animals as a means of trade.

Before 1448, European had to use the Silk Road to trade with Asia. In 1453, Muslim took over Constantinople; the only way to Asia had been cut. European nations started to use the Maritime way, and they took over many places in Asia as their access to an easier trade system. Among these European nations, like what they did to America, their goals and the way they achieved their initiatives in Asia are different from one another. Portuguese was the first group that explored the way to Asia without going through Muslims.

In South Asia and Southeast Asia changes occurred due to the Indian Ocean trade network between 500 CE to 1450 CE economically, culturally, and politically. Some similarity the South Asia and the Southeast Asia contained was a strong economy by specialization as trade became more prominent. Once the Indian Ocean trade basin became more notable, culturally, religions Buddhism, and Islam, as well as adapting to some of Indian political tradition became a gradual change. Some difference is how the Southeastern Asia used their advantage with their dependency on maritime trade. As well as establishing Hindu temples as a center of economic and social means in addition to developing a more flexible caste system from India.

The plague spread quickly from Asia to Europe along the Silk Road. The reason why the Black Death was able to kill so many people was that it was spread through rats and fleas. Which were small enough to travel to different areas throughout the world without being seen, or noticed. Rats would often board a boat with humans without being seen. Boats were used for trade in medieval times as they could travel to more places than people could by foot. However boats were also the main carrier of the plague. The plague was easily spread by boats as once the ill and the rats departed the ship and had entered a village they would begin to infect the people who lived there. The rats that had been infected by the disease would run around and hide in the villages, meaning that if you lived in a place that was not very hygienic you had a pretty likely chance of becoming infected. This meant that one by one village’s population were dramatically decreasing, with peasants, doctors and monks being the first to go. This was because peasants lived in worse conditions than nobles and higher classed people and were more susceptible to the disease. Monks and doctors were also susceptible to the disease as they would often care for, talk to and meet with people who were ill. The Black Death was a dangerous disease that decreased medieval society’s population

The Silk Road Routes was a route that was established in order to increase trade of silk, paper, and other goods across China, India, and Central East Asia. Many merchants, missionaries, and travellers have used this road for traveling and trading from one end to another. Whilst the trade and travel, there was a multicultural transmission between China and India. As there was the trade with goods, there were transferrals of philosophies, beliefs, art, and culture through the Silk Road. Buddhism, which is a major religion that originated from India, became a big impact on those who crossed paths with Buddhist monks or those who practiced Buddhism from India. China was particularly impacted by this cultural transmission. Buddhism had influenced and even replaced major belief systems that already existed in China, through this, it even helped promote new forms of social and political thought, ideologies and even harmony among the belief systems in China. Although the establishment of the Silk Road routes was known for trade among China, India and Central Asia, it also became an aid for opening multicultural transmission of philosophy and beliefs between India and China, particularly the introduction and growth of Buddhism in China.

The bubonic plague is believed to have begun in south China in the 1320’s. The virus that causes bubonic plague is carried in the saliva of fleas that use rats as hosts. When there was a lack of rats to host the fleas they attacked the human population. The plague moved to northern China with travelers and warriors. Once it made its way to the silk roads it quickly swept across the Mediterranean and as far north as Scandinavia. Prior to the expansion of the silk roads, China had been isolated from the rest of the world. If it had not been for the growing trade market and the heavily traveled silk roads, the plague wouldn't have been able to spread outside of China so quickly or maybe even at all. The hardest hit areas were urban areas along

There are many theories on how the plague found its way to Europe. A journalist from National Geographic, Cameron Walker said, “The bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, lives inside the gut of its main carrier, the flea. The plague likely spread to Europe on the backs of shipboard black rats that carried plague-infested fleas.” Europe’s widespread trade system was the main cause of the plague spreading to England, Italy, France, and other neighboring countries (Richard). This bacterium caused infection not only in rodents, but also in humans and insects. The flea attached itself to a host and infected them with the disease by producing blockages in the stomach, making it that no blood can pass through (Sutyak). The infection is highly contagious. Something as simple as a cough could cause the bacteria to go air borne and kill numerous people in a matter of days. The Black Death started to quickly spread, resulting in countries being blindsided and having the disease kill a vast sum of their population. The case of the bubonic plague was the only disease to affect Western Europe on a worldwide scale (Damen).

But somehow, fleas could transmit the disease of the Bubonic Plague to human beings. Although the Bubonic Plague started in China, this disease reached to Europe, because of all the trading that Europe and China did. In October of 1347, a few Italian merchant ships came back from a trip to the Black Sea (The Black

The plague originated in China. Then moved through west Asia and was then transported to Europe all by trading ships. The disease started spreading immediately. The Bubonic Plague was one of the most contagious diseases in their time period. The horrible disease started spreading from rats and the people on the trading ships.

The plague is transmitted by rat fleas meaning that this disease is more common in the warmer seasons, disappearing during the winter, or at least it loses power to spread. The epidemic disease in fact began with an attack that the Mongols launched on the Italian merchants in the last trading station in the region, kaffa (today feodosiya) in the Crimea. Before everyone use to believe that the plague was originated from china. Ships would usually travel at an average speed of 40km a day which today it might seem quite slow, but this speed back than meant the black death easily moved 600km in a one night by ship. Spreading with a fast speed and unpredictability up to 2km per day along the busiest highways or roads and about 0.6km per day along

The first outbreak of the plague was traced back to China, in the early 1330's, when suddenly a great pestilence spread out from the Gobi desert and started to reach the cities of the Monoglian empire. At that time the Mongolian empire was at its peak and it had set up trading routes to the different nations of Europe, which meant the bubonic plague could be spread very easily by merchants transporting their wares to Europe. The first merchant ships to bring the plague to Europe arrived on October 1347 when twelve ships that had just ended the journey sailing from the Black sea docked in the harbour town of Messina in Sicily. When people welcomed

The bubonic plague has been around for almost two thousand years. In most early cases the plague was spread from China along the Silk Road. The Silk Road was the over land trade route from the orient that silk, spices, and other trade able goods from the east to western Europe. In most cases rats carrying the Oriental Rat Flea or another animal carrying the flea would move to a new location. Once that animal died the flea would move to another host which could be a human. Once bitten by the flea a bubo begins to form when the bubo begins to ooze fluid the illness can then be passed through touch. As stated above in the Middle

Many thousands of years ago, upon the earliest creations of civilization, there were two thriving civilizations. Both of which knew little to nothing about each other’s existence. In this ancient world, there was no connection of the two civilizations, no trade in commerce or culture. It was not until the second century BC that Europe and Eastern Asia interacted in a significant way. What is known as “The Silk Road” was established during the Han Dynasty of China, it was a network of trade routes that created a link between these two regions during this ancient world (ancient.eu). Though these routes have history prior to the Han Dynasty, this is when many historians see the routes in full practice. This time during the second century BC was crucial in the connection of these separately thriving civilizations, connecting them through commerce, religion, and exploration.

The origins of the Black Death can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s. The cause of this sudden eruption of the plague is not exactly known. From the desert, it spread out in all directions. Of most importance was the spread eastward to China. China suffered an emergence of bubonic plague during the early 1330s. During the expansion of trade during the Early and High Middle ages, trade routes with China were strengthened and ventured greatly. European traders, particularly those from the Italian city states, traveled the Black Sea region regularly. Surviving documents show that one group of traders from Genoa arrived in Sicily In October of 1347, fresh from a voyage to China. This was most likely the introduction of the plague to European lands. Along with the Chinese goods on board, the traders carried the bacterium yersinia pestis in the rats on board as well as in some of the sailors themselves. The Black Death had arrived in Europe.