Trade routes: Did you mean...?

Nagasaki, on the northwest coast of Japan’s Kyushu Island, was an important Portuguese trading base from c. 1571 to 1639, and the most eastern outpost of the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese presence transformed Nagasaki from a small fishing...

The Indian Ocean trade of the 15th and 16th centuries was a vast maritime network linking East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. It facilitated the movement of spices, textiles, metals, timber, and luxury goods, dominated...

Canaan was the name of a large and prosperous ancient country (at times independent, at others a tributary to Egypt) located in the Levant region of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. It was also known as Phoenicia. The origin...

By c. 1750, Africa stood at the center of three major slave-trading systems, the transatlantic, trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean trades, each connecting African societies to wider global economies. These networks operated simultaneously but...

The Wolof (aka Jolof or Djolof) Empire was a state on the coast of West Africa, located between the Senegal and Gambia rivers, which thrived from the mid-14th to mid-16th century CE. The empire prospered on trade thanks to the two rivers...

Silk is a fabric first produced in Neolithic China from the filaments of the cocoon of the silk worm. It became a staple source of income for small farmers and, as weaving techniques improved, the reputation of Chinese silk spread so that...

Map of Phoenicia and its trade routes.

African Slave Trade, map by KuroNekoNiyah, 2021. This map provides an overview of the slave trade out of Africa, c. 1500-1900, showing both transatlantic and ancillary global flows. It is based on Map I from Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave...

This map shows the major sources of trade goods in the Roman Empire, circa 200 CE. The map shows the sources of the following trade goods: grain, olive oil, slaves, wine, metals, textiles and wild animals.

The English East India Company (EIC or EEIC), later to become the British East India Company, was founded in 1600 as a trading company. With a massive private army and the backing of the British government, the EIC looted the Indian subcontinent...