Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, Volume I

This volume investigates the emergence and spread of maritime commerce and interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World-the world's first "global economy"-from a longue durée perspective. Spanning from antiquity to the nineteenth century, these essays move beyond the usual focus on geographical sub-regions or thematic aspects to foreground inter- and trans-regional connections. Analyzing multi-lingual records and recent archaeological findings, volume I examines mercantile networks, the role of merchants, routes, and commodities, as well as diasporas and port cities.

Angela Schottenhammer is Professor of Non-European History at the University of Salzburg, Austria, and Research Director and Adjunct Professor at the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University, Canada.

1. Introduction.- I. Routes and Connections.- 2. China's Increasing Integration into the Indian Ocean World until Song - Times: Sea Routes, Connections, Trades.- 3. The Peak of China's Long-Distance Maritime Connections with Western Asia during the Mongol Period: Comparison with the Pre-Mongol and Post-Mongol Periods.- 4. "He Did Not Kiss the Earth between His Hands": Arabic Sources on the Arrivals of the Zheng He Fleet in Aden and Mecca (1419-1432).- II. Commercial Crossroads and New Perspectives on Archaeological Evidence.- 5. Protohistoric and Early Historic Exchange in the Eastern Indian Ocean: A Re-evaluation of Current Paradigms.- 6. Shipwrecks in Southeast Asia: China's Maritime Trade and the Emerging Role of Arab Merchants in Late First Millennium Indian Ocean Exchange.- 7. Cargoes Human and Otherwise: Chinese Commerce in East African Goods during the Middle Period.- 8. Indic Mercantile Networks and the Indian Ocean World: A Millennial Overview (c. 500-1500 CE).- III. Official and Contraband Trade in the Nineteenth Century.- 9. Opium in the Indian Ocean Trade in the Early Modern Period: A Commodity of Both Official and Contraband Exchange.- 10. Transfer of Small Arms from Great Britain to Iran (Persia) in the Nineteenth Century.- 11. German Merchants in the Indian Ocean World: From Early Modern Paralysis to Modern Animation.- IV. Diasporas, Trade, and Human Mobility.- 12. Han Chinese Representations of South Sea Merchants in Song China.- 13. Port Cities in the Gulf and the Red Sea during the Long Eighteenth Century (c. 1720-c. 1840): General Characteristics and Some Comparisons with Southeast Asia.