Power Of The Indian Ocean

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.

Commerce in the Indian Ocean region was transformed between the years 650 CE and 1750 CE. Multiple changes, as well as continuities shaped the Indian Ocean commercial trade, including the continued use of overseas trade routes, which were constantly affected by the monsoon winds during transit. In addition, certain key changes throughout the time period, involve the rise and fall of the major powerful empires, such as the Delhi`, Sultanate, Tang, Song, Ming, and the Mongolian, which all played significant roles in facilitating inter-regional trade. Not to mention, the increase of maritime trade technology, which reshaped the way merchants traveled. All together, the Indian Ocean trade network underwent numerous changes, as well as continuities, which improved the commerce during this era.

From 650 CE to 1750 CE, there were many changes and continuities in the commerce of the Indian Ocean region. One major continuity in the commerce of the Indian Ocean was the emergence and use of the same trade routes for both imports and exports of goods such as gold and ivory. One major change was how the commerce of the Indian Ocean prospered economically. The commerce of the Indian Ocean developed rapidly, and the trade incorporated places such as East Africa, the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and India. Another major change was the increased involvement of the Europeans in the Indian Ocean commerce shortly after discovering it.

With the years of development of trades between Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean, both went through some changes along with being tied to each other. For the silk roads, Roman and Egyptian Jews would travel through the silk roads as they were the most common traders. Although for the Indian ocean Muslim traders had dominated the sea. The world's shipping lanes was the Indian ocean during the years 1100-1500 A.D, as Arab sailors soon were masters of the sea trade in the ocean. When northern groups had taken over parts of silk routes, sea trades were taken as they were alternate paths.This resulted in Chinese becoming masters of ship building and merchants creating new trade routes and a new credit system. When the Song dynasty came, silk roads were becoming less common in use of trade as sea trades were becoming more common as they were much cheaper and safer. Trades in the Indian Ocean was not only becoming more common just because of the conditions, but also because of the hajj where Muslims were supposed to travel at least once in their lifetime to

There were many changes and continuities in the Indian ocean trade routes from the classical to the post classic time period. The trade along the Indian Ocean spread culture, religion, technology, crops, and other goods. This diffusion of goods, technology, and religion along the Indian Ocean trade routes was very similar to the diffusion of European and Native American goods, technology, and religion during the 15th-17th centuries in the Americas, often known as the age of exploration. This is because along the India indian ocean during the post classical period, buddhism and hinduism spread to Africa and China and Islam spread into India. From India, many goods including cotton, spices, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg,

The Indian Ocean Region’s commerce and countries were vastly connected with the Indian Ocean Trade Network. During the time period of 650 C.E. to 1750 C.E., the Indian Ocean Region’s commerce experienced continuities in the people and regions involved in the Indian Ocean Trade Network, the use of monsoon winds to facilitate commerce, and the intermarrying of people. The Indian Ocean region, during this same time period, experienced changes in commerce, such as new and improved technologies, the trading of new goods, and the involvement of new people.

When it comes to the political profile, seven different countries have competing maritime claims (mostly over the Spratly and Paracel Islands), some of which become even more complicated as some overlap with other nations’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). Despite the “intraregional distrust, deeply rooted historical issues, and rapidly increasing military spending” in the region surrounding the South China Sea, one expert argues that “not only has the conflict not escalated into a serious military conflict; it has, in fact, been mitigated… in fact, a more stable peace has developed.” (Costlow, 2012, p.6).

The Indian Ocean, considered the third largest ocean, is located between Australia and Antarctica. This Ocean is a major sea lane connecting the Middle East, East Asia and Africa with Europe and the Americas. The Ocean is essential because of its location. The location helps to boast the production of trade global around the world. It is rich with resources such as natural oil and marine life. The ships that travel the ocean contain over half the world’s international trade cargo and shipment. The trade system is the way of life for people all over

This chapter discusses the interaction between the Europe, Africa and Asia regarding their exploration and long distance trade. Portuguese mariners were sailing around the continent of Africa and through the Indian Ocean in hoping to exchange gold for pepper and spices in India. Russian voyages built empire stretched across Eurasia. Their goal was to explore the Ocean basin. Also, the chapter considers the motive and ways of the European trade and exploration such as: spice trade, spreading Christianity, use of technology such as astrolabe and cross-staff; magnetic compass to navigate. Also, the Columbian exchange was including in food crops, animals and

All throughout the blue currents of the Indian Ocean, in which this body of water, over time filled with migrating people such as sailors, religious leaders, and traders. The movement of people infused the area with differing beliefs, ideas, and goods by contributing to the expansion of Eurasia and Africa. As the level of trade, innovations, and division of labor grew so did the level of globalization took place in this area of the world. The ways in which this land mass became so integrated with the level of interconnectivity, was the rate in which services and goods traveled. All these different aspects especially economically, help expand Africa and Eurasia to become a world power. The fundamental part of becoming a world power comes

The current situation in the East South China Sea is of great importance to the United States’ strategic and economic interests in the region. The destabilization of the region will have adverse effects around the world and could lead to a major military conflict between many nations. The nation of China has been expanding their territorial lines farther and farther into the South China Sea and it has led to Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippians expand theirs as well, these expanding territorial lines and large military presents of China and the United States have created a fear of conflict. These expansions are due to natural rich resources the waters have to offer and the greater strategic advantage that

As of today, China has expanded and built over seven artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. The South China Sea has recently come to be a major problem in Asia as issues have risen over who has rights of passage and claims in this area. The Chinese of recent have been making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are in areas of free passage for many other Asian countries and the United States. In October 2015, a U.S. guided missile destroyer encountered one of the artificial islands and China’s response was that it would “take any measure” to maintain its security in “their territory”. The Chinese have been questioned in the Permanent Court of Arbitration by the Philippines after claiming rights to historical locations in the South China Sea, which violates sovereign rights of the Philippines, yet China responded to this outcome with refusal and has continued to advance itself in the territory causing huge disputes with its neighboring countries as freedom of navigation has been compromised through China’s actions.. In order to guarantee resolution and maintain the freedom of navigation aspect of international law there needs to be a foreign policy put in place that puts more United States military in the South China Sea with support from disputing countries like Japan and the Philippines as a way to make the issue multilateral and law abiding.

The dispute over the South China Sea denotes the process of power rebalancing while China rising as a hegemony in East Asia. China craves for more resources and power and decides to effectuate that by controlling more maritime territory. This act impelled the United State to align with the Philippines to balance with China. In a realism world, U.S. has adequate reason to intervene for fear for China becoming too strong a power.

First, the South China Sea constitutes the eastern approach to the Strait of Malacca, one of the “world's four most important strategic maritime passages,” and therefore contains the vital SLOCs between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.3 Figure 1. provides a visual representation of the SLOCs running through the South China Sea. “About 25% of the global shipping fleet transits through the region each year, underlining the importance of the South China Sea as an extension of the Malacca chokepoint.”4 That 25% traveling these SLOCs includes over half of the world’s shipping for oil and gas every year.5 Considering the volume of traffic passing through the South China Sea, a disruption of traffic along these SLOCs caused by a claims dispute or even armed conflict will rapidly generate negative global effects. Short of military action, challenges such as natural disasters6 or piracy require an international unified action (or at least, de-conflicted action) from multiple if not all South China Sea claimant nations.

Following the cessation of the Cold War, a massive territorial dispute erupted over two island chains in the South China Sea (SCS), the Paracels and the Spratleys. Those nations disputing their rightful ownership include China, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Taiwan. The source of the conflict in this area stems from the geographical location and the natural resources to be gained through their ownership. According to the World Bank, the sea contains approximately 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and seven billion barrels of oil. That roughly equates to the amount of energy needed to power the entire world for an entire year. Furthermore, the sea is a center for fishing and provides most of the surrounding countries with the vast majority of their total fish supply. Finally, the SCS is a major trade route, especially for petroleum products and crude oil shipments; control of the region could easily mean absolute monopoly over shipments passing through it.