Cover art for Driven by the Monsoons
Published
Oxford University Press, August 2025
ISBN
9780198886815
Format
Hardcover, 384 pages
Dimensions
25cm × 19.5cm × 2.4cm

Driven by the Monsoons Through the Indian Ocean and the Seas of China

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Due August 28, 2025.
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The Silk Road may be one origin of globalization, but the Indian Ocean is another. Barry Cunliffe examines the beginning of maritime trade using the evidence of archaeology and the tales of great travellers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and the Chinese Admiral, Zheng He.

This story complements that of the land routes, showing how humans have been driven across thousands of years to create and maintain networks whatever the difficulties.Driven by the Monsoons illuminates maritime connections between the Indian Ocean and its surrounding water routes: the Arabian Gulf and the Red and China Seas. It begins with the movement of humans into South-East Asia and ends about 1600 CE when European companies emerge to takeover. It is tale of exotic goods, material needs, adventure, and desire.While conditions at sea and the abilities of the maritime communities provided a degree of stability, the direction and intensity of trade and the types of commodities on the move was determined by the fortunes and aspirations of distant empires, those of China in the east and South-West Asia and the Mediterranean in the west. This ever-changing pressure provided the dynamic situation in which society and economies in East Africa, India and South-East Asia flourished. Driven by the Monsoons explores the birth of the modern, connected, world.FeaturesTells the story of trade across the Indian Ocean through time using the evidence of archaeology and the tales of great travellersUses this history to explore the origins of globalizationProvides a comprehensive look at the economic systems which spanned the Indian Ocean throughout historyOffers a new historical perspective which gives an understanding of modern world economies

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