AEMI

128 AEMI JOURNAL 2015
Conservation of these historic assets is a
critical step in the development process
aiming at improving the aesthetic and
recreational qualities of the country as
well as enhancement of the local identity
and character of a city or town in
former colonial holdings and in Dutch
diaspora countries. 66
Conclusion
This chapter has demonstrated the role
European expansion during the age of
discovery played in interconnecting the
earth’s peoples, cultures, economies, and
polities, how our world become ‘global’
and the vital role states and nations from
Antiquity, the Ottoman Empire, the
Middle East and Indian Ocean Rim and
Americas played in this history. It described
the main historical events from
the 1500 until the 1940s that stimulated
the movements of people at various times
into either colonial outposts or migration
countries in the IOR and Americas
and the monies, goods and services that
were traded, produced or plundered that
supported Europe’s economic and socio-cultural
development. It also noted
the increased mobility of peoples during
colonialism and the extent to which their
remittances back home continued after
the age of exploration to ensure Europe’s
continued growth into modern times
highlighting the extent to which the 21
May 2014, Council of the European Union’s
adopted ‘Conclusions on cultural
heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable
Europe’ is linked to, has at times
even relied on the trade and cultural heritage
of states and nations in the IOR and
Americas which it doing so has created a
plethora of ‘mutual cultural heritage’.
I noted in addition the reverse flow of
current remittances out of Europe from
migrants working at jobs in first world
countries to family in the developing
world that rivals, sometimes even exceeding
foreign aid highlighting again the
import role of human diasporas in sustaining
and developing homeland economies.
References and Notes
1 I was born in Europe (Netherlands), grew up in
Australia and was married to a UK migrant from
Wales (deceased 2009).
2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/
english/imperialism: The Oxford Dictionary defines
as ‘a policy of extending a country’s power
and influence through colonization, use of military
force, or other means’.
3 http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_
and_press/press_releases/2013/a_year_of_success.
aspx:The BM also attracts 27 million virtual visitors
per annum; One in four overseas visitors to
London and one in ten overseas visitors to the UK
now visit the British Museum as part of their trip.
4 http://www.silkroutes.net/SilkSpiceIncense-
Routes.htm
5 As the Silk Road was not a single thoroughfare
from east to west, the term ‘Silk Routes’ has become
increasingly favored by historians, though
‘Silk Road’ is the more common and recognized
name. Both terms for this network of roads were
coined by the German geographer and traveler,
Ferdinand von Richthofen, in 1877 CE, who designated
them ‘Seidenstrasse’ (silk road) or ‘Seidenstrassen’
(silk routes).
6 To illustrate, the reluctance of ships to travel the
entire length of a long trading route made them
more willing to sell to an entrepôt port instead.
The entrepôt port then sells the goods at a higher
price to ships travelling the other segment of the
route. In modern times customs areas have largely
made such entrepôts obsolete.
7 Important trade routes, known collectively as the
“Incense Route” were mostly controlled by the
Arabs, who brought frankincense and myrrh by
camel caravan from South Arabia. The network
of routes also served as a channel for trading of
Indian, Arabian, African and East Asian goods.
The incense trade flourished from South Arabia to
the Mediterranean between roughly the 3rd century
BCE to the 2nd century CE. This trade was
crucial to the economy of Yemen. Frankincense