Student's Book – Dec 2009 (5.9mb) - The Curriculum Project

The Spice Islands and the spicesThe Moluccas Islands were calledthe Spice Islands because they arethe world’s largest source of blackpepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves,nutmeg, mace and camphor. Thedemand for spices in the West wasvery high, because European andMiddle Eastern diets at this timewere terribly bland without them.They also helped make spoiled meattaste better. Spices were also widelyused as medicines. Merchantsconsidered spices the ideal cargo:you could get a lot of money for asmall amount and they didn’t spoillike other kinds of cargo.The spices that were taken westpassed through the hands of many Map 10: Maritime Spice Routesmerchants (Indonesians, Chinese,Indians, Persians, Arabs and finally Italians). Every time the cargo changed hands, the pricewent up. Whoever could get the spices without having to use dealers would make a huge profit.Portugal got the idea that the nation that controlled pepper could control the world! Portugalwanted to control the Spice Islands so that they could control the price of the spices and controleveryone who wanted to buy spices.exercisemap workA. On Map 10, mark the Straits of Malacca.B. Draw the alternative trade route through the Isthmus of KraC. Circle the Moluccas islands.discussioncompare andcontrastA. In today’s economy, what kinds of things are in high demand, like spice waslong ago?B. Portugal wanted to control the spice trade. Can you think of a similarsituation in the modern world?KEY WORDSOrient (n) – a word that some Westerners use to describe Asia - not common in modern Englishstrategic (adj) – something which helps achieve a certain goal or objectiveThe Age of ExplorationIn the early fifteenth century, the Portuguese started looking for a way to reach the Orient bysailing around Africa. In this way the Age of Exploration started. However, in order to get to theSpice Islands, they still needed to go through the Straits of Malacca.The first famous empire to control the Straits of Malacca was Srivijaya. Its control grew weakerafter the 11 th century. From the 15 th century it was controlled by the Sultanate of Malacca.Goods from Arabia, Persia, India, China, Portugal and Japan went through the marketplaces ofMalacca. Because of Malacca’s commercial success and strategic geographical location, it was37