Commerce in the Indian Ocean Region from 650 C.E to 1750 C.E

Analyze the changes and continuities in commerce in the Indian Ocean region from 650ce to 1750ce.

There has been many very big changes and continuities in commerce in the Indian Ocean region from 650ce to 1750ce . One thing is for sure that trade has significantly increased in that time period and the commerce in the Indian Ocean region has played an important part in the world. Over the time period many powerful empires have switched its control of the commerce in the Indian Ocean region. The Indian ocean ranges a big part of land from East Africa to China and is the bridge and home to many types of goods being transported from place to place spreading different types of crops, religion, and languages. Different types of changes include who was actually in power and the involvement of new people. Despite the drastic changes during the time period there were some continuities such as where they traded, the type of people involved, and the type of goods that were traded.

The most significant change in commerce from 650ce to 1750ce was who was actually trading and who dominated trade in the Indian Ocean. Many arguments can be made to say who 'dominated' trade in that time period because there were many different empires during the time period. In 650ce Mongol rule really controlled land based trade along the silk roads linking Europe to India and China. With the decline of the large Mongol empire China begins to engage heavily in trade. The Ming Dynasty dominates for a little bit of Indian ocean trade with massive ships carrying huge amounts of cargo. However eventually someone new takes the throne and puts restrictions on the imports and exports in China. However the Swahili paradise states along East Africa used the knowledge of monsoon winds in order to easily navigate the trade of gold, ivory, and slaves, across the Indian Ocean to India, China, and some Polynesian islands. Now the big change happened somewhere between 1492 and the 1600s. In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue across the Atlantic ocean starting two things, the Columbian exchange, and new European explorers. A European explorer Vasco Da Gama circumnavigated Africa and established Portuguese contact between the empires of Asia only increasing further trade in the Indian Ocean. With the help of monsoon winds and new technological navigational advances I'm going to say Europe dominated trade in the Indian Ocean basin. With the Portuguese establishing control over the Swahili states of the east African coast and Britain and France later getting involved in the affairs of the Mughol empire in India and the decline of the the other two Islamic empires of the ottomans and the safavids; Europe begins to dominate the trade and commerce in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese begins to benefit a whole lot from trading slaves from Africa across the Indian ocean in exchange for silk, spices, and other goods from around Asia. So by the