A Companion to Mediterranean History, First Edition. Edited by Peregrine Horden and Sharon Kinoshita.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
chapter twenty-nine
The connectivity of the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean extends back to at least
the third millennium bce. The relationship between these two bodies of water was
inevitably bound up with trade along the “silk roads”; the goods—spices, silks, gem-
stones, textiles, metals, and slaves, to name just a few—that moved along these routes
would travel along sea lanes for a portion of the journey, and then along land routes
of varying distance and difficulty across Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Arabia for the
remainder of the trip. Whether partially by land or wholly by sea, Mediterranean
exchange with the Indian Ocean was influenced by a range of forces: topographical
(interconnected seas), environmental (monsoons), technological (innovations in sea-
faring), political (changing empires), and social (especially the diffusion of religions,
including Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam). When examined across the longue
durée, a few striking continuities and changes in Mediterranean and Indian Ocean
connectivity become apparent. What remains somewhat constant in the exchange
over time is the ongoing interest of imperial powers in facilitating this connectivity,
trends in the directional flow of commodities versus “currency,” the types of com-
modities the west desired from its eastern trading partners, namely “exotic/luxury”
goods, and many of the mechanisms by which that exchange was achieved. What
changes over time is the scale of the exchange and the ability of singular imperial pow-
ers to assert control over it.
What Mediterranean? What Indian Ocean?
Changing scales of connectivityScholars engaged in the “new thalassology” (studies emphasizing the physical
features, conceptual frameworks, labor, environment, commerce, and political
implications of major seas) have noted both that thalassology offers a challenge to
traditional imperial hierarchies, since a focus on seas ignores traditional borders
(Horden and Purcell, 2006: 723), while still reflecting imperial ideologies, since
“basin thinking is a product of high imperialism” (Wigen, 2006: 720). The implication
The Mediterranean and
the Indian Ocean
elizaBetH ann Pollard