Tag: maritime trade

Becoming an Islamic Sea by Edward A. Alpers

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Summary of Chapter

Edward A. Alphers (2013) explains how and why the Indian Ocean became a sea trade area dominated by Islam. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Abbasid Dynasty (750AD – 1255AD) ruled over Baghdad and dominated the western Indian Ocean world. After state building, military expansion, and religious consolidation, the empire demanded luxury goods and encouraged their merchants to trade farther into the Indian Ocean. With blessing from the Qu’ran, their holy book, Muslim Arab-Persian merchants traveled along the coastlines converting the locals into Islam and settling into many maritime port cities. Due to these actions, Islam became a major religion in the Indian Ocean. Muslim traders from all over the Indian Ocean region felt united through “umma”, the community of believers. Although there was political and theological strife on land, Muslim merchants felt connected with other maritime merchants through the same religion, Islam; spoken language, Arabic; and governing law, Islamic law. Due to Islamic expansion, many Nestorian Christians, Persian Zoroastrians, and exile Muslims were pushed out of the Arab Peninsula and into the Indian Ocean to participate in maritime trade.

As the Islamic empire was developing and growing, South China (Nanhai) was also developing and growing. The connection that they built between each other formed a single Indian Ocean trading circuit. Many Arab-Persian merchants came to trade in Guangzhou. However, as the Tang Dynasty declined, these merchants faced violence from rebel leaders and corruption from politicians, so they fled to neighboring Srivijava (present-day Sumatra). During the Song dynasty, Srivijava was competing with their neighboring island, Java as the best trading area in Southeast Asia. Later, a Malay prince converted to Islam to help boost trade between his empire of Malaka and Muslim merchants. After his conversion, his empire rose politically, and in its heyday, ruled over both Srivijava and Java.

Interesting Tidbit

When Arab-Persians settled in the port cities in East Africa, many of them married with the local women and integrated into East African society. These merchants also promoted the East African export, gold. Linyi, a port city in Vietnam, was an important port city that frequently traded with China and Persia. However, they lost their power as a trade city when Arab-Persian merchants stopped traveling there in favor of traveling straight to Guangzhou, a much bigger trade port.

Connection to Guiding Question

Through my research, I have learned that Quanzhou became an important trade city because of economic pressure, high revenues due to trade, convenient geographical location, and political strife in northern China. However, I did not yet learn why Arab-Persians traveled to China. Through this chapter, I learned that foreign traders traveled to China because they were exiled from their homelands, were motivated by their leaders, who wanted more exotic items; and encouraged by their religion. Since almost every port city had a Muslim community who felt bounded by “umma”, it was easy and safe for Muslim merchants to trade and travel overseas. Therefore, this community tie encouraged more Muslims to travel, trade, and settle in a new city away from home.

Alpers, E. A. (2013). Becoming an Islamic Sea. In Title: The Indian Ocean in World History: New Oxford World History (p. 40- 68). New Oxford World History.

The Golden Age of Maritime Trade by Lincoln Paine

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Summary of Chapter

In this chapter, Lincoln Paine (2013) describes the further rise of maritime trade in Quanzhou during the Yuan Dynasty and its decline during the Ming Dynasty. After helping the southern Song government defeat the northern Jin government, the Mongols attacked the Songs, but their horses were no match for Song warships. Once the Mongolian leader, Kublai Khan, adapted his forces for naval combat, he defeated the Songs and founded the Yuan Dynasty. As leader, Kublai Khan had bold maritime ambitions so he increased the naval army and developed maritime trade in the region. For his naval army, he demanded 2000 ships to be built, which decreased the amount of timber in China. To increase trade, he aimed to conquer Korea, Japan, and Java, but only was successful in conquering Korea. His defeat in Java lost him 20,000 Chinese sailors, who remained in Southeast Asia as prisoners of war. For trade, he improved navigation, dredged channels, built more warehouses, docks, and anchorages; erected lighthouses, and developed safer sea routes. His government lent ships to foreign merchants and split the profits 70:30. The government, of course, getting the higher share. From this rapid expansion of trade, navigational practices, including the early form of the compass and seaway charts, emerged.

In 1330s, the Yuan dynasty faced famine, plague, and repeated flooding, and therefore, was replaced by the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty’s leaders were native Chinese and sought a Sino-centric path. Under Taizu Ming, China prioritized border defense and protection against pirates over maritime trade. As Neo-Confucian believers, he and the Ming Dynasty did not prioritize technological advances in shipbuilding or sea navigation, financial institutions, or the legal protection of private property. Instead of open foreign trade, they focused on increasing Chinese prestige overseas. To encourage tributes to the emperor and eliminate trade competition with expatriate Chinese, the emperor sent Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch, and a fleet of hundred ships around the Indian Ocean. Zheng He went on many voyages. Although China was excited about Zhang He’s victory over pirates during his first voyage, they grew bored by his last voyage because China was too busy dealing with domestic issues, such as river floods, epidemics, currency depreciation, and preoccupied armies. In the 1430s, the Ming government prohibited Chinese ships and sailors from overseas travel, stopped building ships for overseas voyages, and abandoned coastal defense. Due to the decrease of oversea trade, many Chinese traders from Quanzhou abandoned China and moved permanently to Southeast Asia.

Interesting Tidbits

Before the Yuan Dynasty, Quanzhou was a multicultural city with foreign communities. According to written documents by visitors, the foreigners were split between the fair-skinned (Arabs and Persians) foreigners and the dark-skinned (Southeast Asian and Indian) foreigners. Second, Lincoln Paine points out that in 1292 Kublai Khan sent a Yuan princess (with 14 ships and Marco Polo) to Persia to wed a Persian prince, not by land – the typical Mongolian way- but by sea. Marco Polo reported this in his book, The Travels. Although China grew bored of oversea trade, the Zhang He’s voyages encouraged local rulers to start minting their own coins and adopt a coin/cash economy.

Connection to Guiding Questions

This chapter claims that Quanzhou’s multiculturalism supported its growth as well as its decline. Since the leaders of Yuan Dynasty were Mongols, their dynasty encouraged religious tolerance, overseas trade, and naval expansion. Because they had previous work experience with Arab-Persians, the Mongolian rulers favored foreign merchants over the Han Chinese, and gave them political, military, and economic power to rule over Quanzhou. After the Ming Dynasty retook China from Mongolians, they wanted China to go back to its “Chinese” ways, or in their case, Neo-Confucian ideals. They pretty much wanted to “Make China Great Again”. As a counterattack against the open trade policy of the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty stopped overseas trade, alienated maritime merchants, and ignored their naval defense. Due to these trade restrictions, Quanzhou stopped being a major port city and many of its residents either moved to Southeast Asia to trade or moved to the mountains to farm. This chapter really paints a picture on how government policies can impact positively and negatively on international trade and cultural diversity in a region.

Paine, L. (2013). The golden age of maritime trade. In The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (pp. 346-375). Random House.