Driven by the Monsoons
Through the Indian Ocean and the Seas of China
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Publishing:13th Feb '25
£30.00
This title is due to be published on 13th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
The Silk Road may be one origin of globalization, but the Indian Ocean is another. Barry Cunliffe examines the beginning of maritime trade using the evidence of archaeology and the tales of great travellers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and the Chinese Admiral, Zheng He. This story complements that of the land routes, showing how humans have been driven across thousands of years to create and maintain networks whatever the difficulties. Driven by the Monsoons illuminates maritime connections between the Indian Ocean and its surrounding water routes: the Arabian Gulf and the Red and China Seas. It begins with the movement of humans into South-East Asia and ends about 1600 CE when European companies emerge to takeover. It is tale of exotic goods, material needs, adventure, and desire. While conditions at sea and the abilities of the maritime communities provided a degree of stability, the direction and intensity of trade and the types of commodities on the move was determined by the fortunes and aspirations of distant empires, those of China in the east and South-West Asia and the Mediterranean in the west. This ever-changing pressure provided the dynamic situation in which society and economies in East Africa, India and South-East Asia flourished. Driven by the Monsoons explores the birth of the modern, connected, world.
Once again Barry Cunliffe brings his archaeological and historical expertise to bear on maritime spaces, the Indian Ocean and the seas off China, that have been sailed intensively for thousands of years. The story of these seas is the story of how Asia, Africa, and then Europe became connected, first through trade and migration, and then through conquest. It is also the story of cultural interactions, as religious ideas moved east and as silk and spices moved west. * David Abulafia, Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History in the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College *
ISBN: 9780198886815
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
544 pages