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Possible Pepper Trade Route
A possible trade route for pepper from India to Rome.

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Indian Ocean Trade before the European Conquest
Finding a maritime route to the East and gaining access to the lucrative spice trade stood at the root of the European Age of Exploration. However, when Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached the Indian Ocean in 1493, he...

Definition
Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire (aka Songhay, c. 1460 - c. 1591) covered what is today southern Mauritania and Mali. It replaced the Mali Empire (1240-1645) as the most important state in West Africa. Originating as a smaller kingdom along the eastern...

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Middle Eastern Power Shifts & the Trade of Pepper from East to West
Pepper has long been the king of spices and for almost 2,000 years dominated world trade. Originating in India, it was known in Greece by the 4th century BCE and was an integral part of the Roman diet by 30 BCE. It remained a force in Europe...

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The Brouwer Route
The Dutch East India Company's favoured route from Europe to southeast Asia was known as the Brouwer Route. It was discovered by Dutch explorer Hendrik Brouwer (c. 1581-1643) in 1611 and halved the sailing time from the Netherlands to the...

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The Silk Road: Trade Route of the Ancient World
The Silk Road was a network of trading routes that connected a number of different regions in the ancient world, stretching over four thousand miles from China, through India and Asia Minor and through Mesopotamia and the African continent...

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Map Showing William Dampier's 1699 Expedition Route
Map showing William Dampier's expedition along the west and northwest coast of New Holland (Australia) and the coasts of Timor, New Guinea and New Britain in 1699 aboard the HMS Roebuck.

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The Spice Trade & the Age of Exploration
One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade. In the 15th century, spices came to Europe via the Middle East land and sea routes, and spices...

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The African Slave Trade, c. 1750
By 1750, Africa had emerged as the center of three major slave-trading systems: the transatlantic, trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean trades. These interconnected networks linked African societies to European, Middle Eastern, and Asian markets...

Definition
Timbuktu - West Africa's Great Trading Centre
Timbuktu (Timbuctoo) is a city in Mali, West Africa which was an important trade centre of the Mali Empire which flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries. The city, founded c. 1100, gained wealth from access to and control of the trade...