AEMI

114 AEMI JOURNAL 2015
factors that influenced European mobility,
expansion and development from
the late 1400s.
The History of Ancient Trade
Routes and European Development
– a Brief Overview
European economic and socio-cultural
expansion gained a great deal of potency
from the time when the Silk Road network
of trade routes began to appear. 4
Formally established during the Han
Dynasty of China (206 BC – 220 AD),
the ‘Silk Road’ linked the regions of
the ancient world in commerce from as
early as130 BC when the Han peoples
of China officially opened trade with
the west. 5 It extended 4,000 miles from
Europe through Egypt, Somalia, the
Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Afghanistan,
Central Asia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India,
Bangladesh, Burma, Java Indonesia,
Philippines and Vietnam into China.
This sophisticated system also sported
entrepôt trading posts. 6
From the 7th century BC to the 2nd
century AD, the Greco-Roman world
also traded along the ‘Incense route’ 7
and the ‘Roman-India routes’. Aspects
of these such as the Persian Royal Road
were already in existence during the
Achaemenid Empire thus as early as
500-330 BC. 8 The Incense Route served
as a channel for trading Arabian Frankincense
and Myrrh; Indian spices, precious
stones, pearls, ebony, silk and fine
textiles, and from the Horn of African
rare woods, feathers, animal skins and
gold. Spices such as cinnamon, cassia,
cardamom, ginger, and turmeric were
known, and used for commerce in the
Eastern World well into antiquity. These
spices found their way into the Middle
East before the beginning of the Common
Era, 9 where the true sources of
these spices were withheld by the traders,
and associated with fantastic tales.
Opium was also imported. The Egyptians
had traded in the Red Sea, importing
spices from the “Land of Punt” and
from Arabia. Luxury goods traded along
the Incense Route included Indian
spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles. The
spice trade was associated with overland
routes early on but maritime routes
proved to be the factor, which helped
the trade grow. The Ptolemaic Dynasty
developed trade with India using Red
Sea ports. 10
Silk Road merchants traded with Europe
via the Byzantine Empire with the
Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa
acting as middlemen through Egypt,
Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran,
Afghanistan, Central Asia, Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Burma,
Java Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam
and China. 11 Trade on the Silk
Road was a significant factor in the development
of the civilizations of China,
the Indian sub-continent, Persia, Europe
and Arabia. It opened long-distance,
political and economic interactions between
these civilizations. Arab traders
eventually took over conveying goods
via the Levant and Venetian merchants
to Egypt and Europe. Its main traders
were the Chinese, Bactrians, Persians,
Romans, Armenains, Indians and Sogdians.
12
Overland routes helped the spice
trade initially, but maritime trade routes
led to tremendous growth in commercial
activities. In fact the Kingdom of
Axum (CA 5th-century BC–AD 11th
century) pioneered the Red Sea route