Archipelagos: The Foundation of the Global Trade System

The Afro-Eurasian trade system of the 1200s and 1300s was not exactly global. At the time, however, it was the biggest connected trade network in the world. This pre-modern trade system had no clear dominant society. Everyone used it in pretty much equal terms. The system depended on the highly profitable trades of silk from China. It also depended on spices from Southeast Asia. Hundreds of other products were also traded in this system. These included gold, copper, diamonds, ivory, fur, honey, wax, glass, wine, and fruits. There were manufactured products made of leather, brass, copper, wool, cotton, glass, and iron. Animals were traded, too. The system allowed people to share their knowledge and technologies. This brought about the intellectual and material development of this vast section of the world.

Since most of its products were luxury items, this trade network was concentrated on key urban centers. The system ignored vast rural areas. They mostly continued to rely on local markets. The cities were, therefore, like islands of production in a sea of rural areas. That is why the system of long-distance trade is described as an “archipelago of trade.” An archipelago is a chain of islands.

Hundreds of important cities and ports dotted a complex network of land and water routes. This was known as “the Silk Road.” Long before Europeans began to explore the world in the 1400s, global trade was possible. The Silk Road interconnected eight geographically regions. They were:

1. The Persian Gulf
2. Central Asia’s Northern Passage
3. The China Sea
4. Southeast Asia
5. The Arabian Sea
6. North Africa
7. The Eastern Mediterranean
8. Western Europe

Let’s visit some important urban centers of these regions.

The Persian Gulf Region

The rise of Islam is likely what began the unification of this global network. About 100 years after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 AD, the Abbasid Caliphate ruled a vast territory. A caliphate is an Islamic empire, headed by a caliph who claimed or had been nominated to represent the Muslim community. It extended from Spain in the west through North Africa and into Pakistan in the East. Its capital was Baghdad. It was strategically located at the heart of this global trade. It had easy access to the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and the northern passage of the Silk Road. Baghdad became the most important center of learning in the world.

Then, in 1258, the Mongols attacked and destroyed Baghdad. However, knowledge from Baghdad was not lost. It had already spread to the libraries and minds of scholars along the far-reaching Silk Road.

Central Asia’s Northern Passage

North of Baghdad, the city of Tabriz in present-day Iran connected the Persian Gulf region with Central Asia’s northern passage. It extended from China to the east to the Black Sea to the west. The road had been a perilous one. It was controlled by independent kingdoms. They were often at war with each other. In the early thirteenth century, Chinggis Khan conquered the whole of Central Asia and the Persian Gulf region. He turned most of the Silk Road into a safe and unified trade system. Europeans began traveling these roads soon after. Many products and technologies from China reached Europe this way. This included the technology used by Johannes Gutenberg to create his famous printing press in 1439.

The Mongols were known for their military might. However, Chinggis Khan protected scholars, artisans, and administrators.

The China Sea

China was the key to making the whole system work. It controlled most of the silk and spice trade. Traders were constantly seeking access to China’s products and markets. Chinggis Khan’s grandson, Kublai Khan founded the Chinese Yuan Dynasty in 1271. He moved its capital from Karakorum (in Mongolia) to Beijing (in China). The city was connected to the port cities of Hangchow, Zaytun (or Quanzhou), and Canton (or Guangzhou). These places were producers of silk and porcelain.

India and Southeast Asia

Starting in the 600s, the port city of Palembang on the island of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia became very important. It had been the main connection point between the Chinese Sea and Calicut in the Indian Ocean. It managed the flow of spices until the 1300s. Then China’s fleets of ships made Malacca in modern-day Malaysia the new port for trade.

Trading in Southeast Asia consisted of Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist trading blocks. These groups continued after the Chinese left the area. None of these groups wanted to control the region. They were more interested in trade.

The Arabian Sea and East Africa

Muscat is a city in present-day Oman. It was the Arabian Sea’s most important port. States tended to dispute this city. But no particular state dominated the Arabian Sea. Rather, numerous states controlled key ports. Among them, the Swahili-speaking port at Zanzibar was the main link from East Africa. They traded gold, ivory, and enslaved people from deep in Central Africa.

North Africa

Cairo and Alexandria were the centers of the North African economy. The trans-Sahara trade system to the west was not really part of the Silk Road. However, it was the main provider of gold, enslaved people, and iron to this trading system. The city of Timbuktu marked the west end of the trans-Sahara route. It was strategically located to connect to a vast trade network in West Africa.

Looking east, Egypt reaches the Red Sea at Jeddah. This port was the main access to the Muslim Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Millions of pilgrims coming from all over the Muslim world were key to its economy. Jeddah bridged the Arabian Sea with Alexandria on the Mediterranean shore.

The Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Since the twelfth century, the rivalry between the republics of Genoa and Venice often turned into full-on wars. Nevertheless, they were the Mediterranean Sea’s engine of trade connecting all its ports. Constantinople (now Istanbul) was perhaps its most valuable. As the capital of Byzantium, the city was important for its wealth and power. Its location was its greatest asset. It is the gate between Asia and Europe. It is also the connection between the Mediterranean and the Black seas.

Western Europe

The expansive nature of the Abbasid Caliphate was seen as a threat to the Christian world. In the eleventh century, Pope Urban II had launched the Crusades to regain Christian control of the Holy Land. Although they failed, the Crusades helped reopen a limited trade between Europe and the Muslim world.

The Black Death and the emergence of the modern global trade system

Unfortunately, not everything carried along this network was good. In the early fourteenth century, the nearly global trade system was healthy and strong. Thirty years later, it was falling apart—thanks to the Black Death. This plague was particularly deadly because of the interconnectivity of Afro-Eurasia. It began somewhere in China or Kyrgyzstan in the 1330s. By 1352, the worst was over. In its aftermath, 200 million people died all over Afro-Eurasia.

Soon after, Portugal and Spain began searching for new trade opportunities. To almost everybody’s surprise, Spain bumped upon the Western Hemisphere. Portugal found a passage to India around Africa. They managed to stitch together the trading system destroyed by the Black Death. The result was a modern global trade system controlled by Europe. The West, then, became increasingly richer. The rest of the world grew vulnerable to the greedy nature of European trade.