“A station rotation with 4 centers for 10th grade world history class with ELL and special education students for a substitute teacher. 0:00 Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course World History, and today we’re going to 0:03 be discussing trade here, in the Indian Ocean. Oh, my globe had a globe! We’re gonna do 0:08 some new-school history where we talk about a system instead of talking about individuals 0:13 or some boring boring dynasty — no, Stan, not that kind of Dynasty — yes, that kind of dynasty. 0:18 So many world history classes still focus on People Who Wore Funny Hats, and how their 0:22 antics shaped our lives, right? And while it’s interesting and fun to note that, for 0:26 instance King Charles VI of France believed that he was made out of glass, relentlessly focusing 0:30 on the actions of the Funny-Hatted-People who ruled us makes us forget that we also make history. 0:36 Mr. Green, Mr. Green! Did Charles VI of France really believe that he was made out of glass? 0:40 Yes, he did, but today we’re talking about Indian Ocean trade and it’s going to be 0:43 interesting, I promise. So pay attention. ALSO, NO HATS! This is a classroom, not a 0:47 Truman Capote beach party! 0:49 [theme music] Indian Ocean Trade 0:58 So Indian Ocean trade was like the Silk Road, in that it was a network of trade routes that 1:02 connected people who had stuff to people who wanted it and were willing to pay for it. 1:07 And just as the Silk Road was not a single road, there were lots of Indian Ocean trade 1:11 routes connecting various port cities around the Indian Ocean Basin, including Zanzibar 1:16 and Mogadishu and Hormuz and Canton. 1:18 By the way, before you criticize my pronunciation, please remember that mispronunciation is my 1:22 thing and I’ve been doing it since episode one, and nobody ever notices that it’s a 1:26 thing! Sorry, I lost it there... But Indian Ocean trade was bigger, richer, and featured 1:30 more diverse players than the Silk Road, but it is much less famous probably because it 1:34 does not have a snazzy name. 1:35 What do you think, Stan? Like the “Neptunian Network”? No. “The Wet Web”? No, that’s 1:39 definitely not it. “The Sexy Sea Lanes of South Asia”? No, that’s too hard for me 1:43 to say with my lisp... “THE MONSOON MARKETPLACE!” Thanks, Danica. And now the tyranny of dates: 1:48 By about 700 CE, there was a recognizable Monsoon Marketplace, but it really blew up 1:52 between 1000 CE and 1200. It then declined a bit during the Pax Mongolica, when overland 1:57 trade became cheap and safe, Thanks to-- wait for it-- The Mongols. [Mongoltage] But then 2:03 Indian Ocean trade surged again in the 14th and 15th centuries. So who was trading? Swahili 2:08 coast cities, Islamic empires in the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, and NOT 2:14 EUROPE, which is probably one of the reasons that Monsoon Marketplace isn’t as famous 2:18 as it should be. Let’s go to the Thought Bubble. Monsoon Winds 2:20 So if you live in China, and you need some ivory to make the handle for a sword, you 2:24 have to trade for it, because elephants only live in India and Africa. One of the reasons 2:29 Indian Ocean trade took off is that there were a wide range of resources available and 2:33 a wide range of import needs -- from ivory to timber to books to grain. But the most 2:39 important thing was the wind. 2:41 The Indian Ocean is home to a set of very special winds called Monsoons. You generally 2:45 hear about Monsoons in the context of rain in India, but rather than thinking of Monsoons 2:50 as the rain itself, think of them as the wind that bring a rainy season. The great thing 2:55 about seasons is that they come regularly -- and so do the Monsoon winds. So if you 2:59 were a sailor, you could count on the wind to bring you from Africa to India if you sailed 3:05 between April and September, and one that would bring you back to Africa if you sailed 3:09 between November and February. In fact, these winds were so predictable that early maritime 3:14 travel guides often listed ideal times of down to the week and sometimes even the day. 3:20 Predictable winds make trade a lot less risky: Like, back in the day when the only power 3:24 for ships were sails and oarsmen, your cargo might not arrive on time, or it might spoil, 3:29 or you might die, all of which are bad for the health of global economic trade. But predictable 3:34 winds meant lower risk, which meant cheaper trade, which meant more trade, which meant 3:39 more people could have awesome sword handles. Thanks Thought Bubble. 3:42 Okay, there are a few more facets of Indian Ocean trade worth mentioning. First, Indian How did trading work along the Indian Ocean? 3:46 Ocean trade incorporated many more people than participated in Silk Road trade. There 3:51 were Jewish people and people from Africa to Malaysia and India and China, all sailing 3:55 around and setting up trading communities where they would act as middle men, trying 3:59 to sell stuff for more than they bought it for and trying to find new stuff to buy that they could sell later. 4:04 But despite this diversity, for the most part, especially on the Western half of the Indian 4:07 Ocean basin, the trade was dominated by Muslim merchants. Why? Largely because they had the 4:11 money to build ships, although we will see that in the 15th century, the Chinese state 4:15 could have changed that balance completely. By the way, I need to point out that when 4:18 I say that the trade was dominated by Muslim merchants, the emphasis should be on the merchants- 4:21 not the Muslim or the dominated. 4:23 As previously noted, we tend to think that states and governments and the funny-hatted 4:27 people who rule them are the real movers and shakers in history, but that’s really not 4:31 the case. In the Indian Ocean, the terms of trade were set by the merchants and by the 4:34 demands of the market, not by the whims of political rulers. And the self-regulating 4:38 nature of that trade was remarkable and pretty much unprecedented. I mean, the most amazing 4:42 thing is that, except for a few pirates, all of this trade was peaceful! 4:46 For the better part of seven hundred years these merchant ships were free to sail the 4:49 seas without the need for protection from any state’s navy. This despite the fact 4:52 that some pretty valuable crap was being traded. No, Thought Bubble, I meant that colloquially. 4:56 Alright, we need to do the open letter before Thought Bubble tries more puns. Magic! An Open Letter to Kota Rani 5:04 For today’s Open Letter, to further discuss the relationship between merchants and nobles, 5:07 we’re going to go inland to Kashmir where Kota Rani was the ruler until 1339. Mostly 5:13 I just love this story. But first, let’s find out what’s in the Secret Compartment. 5:16 Oh, it’s Blowouts. Stan, are you asking me to make a diarrhea joke? Because I’m 5:21 above that. I will, however, give you a party blower solo. 5:26 Dear Kota Rani, So, you had a pretty crazy life. First, when you were a kid you were 5:29 kidnapped by a rival noble who disguised his army as a bunch of merchants. Then you were 5:34 forced to marry your kidnapper who was the ruler of Kashmir, but, then he died. And then 5:38 you became the ruler and you were really good at it and everything was going awesome and 5:42 you were lining things up for your sons, but then some dude comes in and decides he’s 5:46 going to marry you and forces you to do it by attacking you. And so what do you do? Immediately 5:51 after your second wedding you commit suicide by slicing open your belly and offer your 5:55 intestines to your horrible new husband as a wedding present. Oh, Stan. I don’t want 5:59 to say it but I have to; That really took guts, Kota Rani! Sorry... And all this because 6:04 your father welcomed an army into his house thinking they were merchants. 6:08 Best wishes, John Green 6:09 So, right. You wouldn’t let an army, or a rival noble, into your house, but everyone 6:13 welcomes a merchant -- and not just royalty. The great thing about seaborne trade is that Benefits of seaborne trade 6:16 you can trade bulk goods like cotton cloth, foodstuffs, and timber that’s all too heavy 6:21 to strap onto a camel or mule. So for the first time we see the beginnings of goods 6:24 being traded for a mass market, instead of just luxury goods, like silk for elites. 6:28 Wood, for instance, can be used to build houses -- but it’s not all that plentiful in the 6:31 Arabian peninsula, however, when it becomes cheaper thanks to trade, suddenly more people 6:36 can have better houses. Much of the timber that was shipped in the Monsoon Marketplace 6:39 came from Africa, which is kind of emblematic. 6:42 Africa produced a lot of the raw materials like animal hides and skin and ivory and gold. 6:47 The Swahili city states imported finished goods such as silk and porcelain from China 6:51 and cotton cloth from India. Spices and foodstuffs like rice were shipped from Southeast Asia 6:56 and especially Sri Lanka where black pepper was a primary export good, and the Islamic 7:00 world provided everything from coffee to books and weapons. But it wasn’t just products 7:04 that made their way around the eastern hemisphere thanks to the Indian Ocean. How Indian Ocean trade facilitated the spread of technology 7:07 Technology spread, too. Like the magnetic compass, which is kind of crucial if you like 7:10 to know where you’re going, came from China. Muslim sailors popularized the astrolabe which 7:14 made it easier to navigate by the stars. Boats using stern-post rudders were easier to steer, 7:18 so that technology quickly spread throughout the Monsoon Marketplace. The Islamic world 7:21 also produced the triangular lateen sail, which became super important because it allowed 7:25 for ships to tack against the wind. This meant that a skilled crew could make their way through 7:28 the ocean even if they didn’t have a strong tailwind. And just as with the Silk Road, 7:32 ideas also traveled in the Monsoon Marketplace. Indian Ocean Trade and the spread of Islam 7:34 For instance today, more Muslims live in Indonesia than in any other country. And yes, I know 7:39 Indonesia has more than two islands. This is not to scale, obviously. Knowing what you’ve 7:43 already learned about the growth of Islam and the spread of trade, it won’t surprise 7:46 you to learn that Islam spread to Indonesia via the Monsoon Marketplace. After the 1200s, 7:51 the region which had previously been heavily influenced by the Indian religions of Hinduism 7:54 and Buddhism, like witness this temple, for instance... became increasingly Islamic as 7:58 rulers and elites adopted the religion so they could have religious as well as economic 8:03 ties to the people they were trading with. The conversion of most of a region to Islam, 8:06 where it continues to flourish today is a pretty big deal. But Islam didn’t spread 8:09 as effectively to the to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam because they weren’t centers of trade. 8:14 How do you become a center for trade? Well, let’s zoom in here to the strait of Malacca. 8:18 You can see how it could act as a choke point for trade. Any city that controlled that strait 8:21 could stop the ships from going through it, or more likely tax them. And that’s exactly 8:25 what happened, to such an extent that a powerful merchant state called Srivijaya rose up on 8:29 Sumatra. And for a while, Srivijaya dominated trade in the region, because there were so 8:33 many ships going through the Strait of Malacca to and from China. But, as we’ll see in 8:37 another episode that this trade abruptly declined in the 15th century. And with it, so did Srivijaya. 8:42 This brings up a key point about Indian Ocean Trade, which is that it was indispensable 8:45 to the creation of certain city states, like Srivijaya and the city states of the Swahili 8:49 Coast. Without trade, those places wouldn’t have existed, let alone become wealthy and grand. 8:54 Trade was a huge source of wealth for these cities because they could tax it; through 8:57 import and export duties or port fees. But the fact that they are no longer powerful 9:01 shows that trade can be a pretty weak foundation on which to built a polity, even a small one. 9:06 There are many reasons for this: like high taxes can motivate traders to find other routes, 9:10 for instance, but the main one is this: Reliance upon trade makes you especially vulnerable 9:14 to the peaks and troughs in the global economy. The legacy of the merchant kingdom in Southeast 9:18 Asia is still alive and well in Singapore, for instance. But one of the great lessons 9:22 of cities that have declined or disappeared is that there’s usually a town nearby that’s 9:26 eager to take your place and happy to offer lower taxes. It’s almost as if the merchants 9:30 decide where the people with the funny hats go, rather than the other way around. Thanks 9:34 for watching. I’ll see you next week.”