Portuguese discovery and conquest.

Opens on a summary about the Medieval European knowledge of the Spice Trade, the chapter also show how Portugal dominated Europe in terms of trade and invasion in the fifteenth century. It goes on with the summary of Portuguese invasion of Africa through the Treaty of Tordesillas and the navigation of Vasco de Gama in the Atlantic coast. After de Gama's navigation, the Portuguese conquest of India began which led to the Portuguese-Mamluk Naval war and established Portuguese sea power in the Indian Ocean. Lastly, the chapter gives a brief summary of the other Portuguese navigations.

Origins of the spice trade in the Indian Ocean.

This chapter highlights the ocean transport and trade routes that facilitated the spice trade in the Indian ocean. This chapter consists of twelve subchapters which are Central Role of Rivers, Persian Gulf Routes, The Red Sea and Beyond, Early Indonesian Seafarers, Royal Road of the First Persian Empire, Persian and Greek Explorations, Arab Stranglehold on Egyptian Trade, War Elephants and Red Sea Travel, the way to India, The Roman Sea, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, and lastly, Rome's Breathtaking International Trade Network.

Age of expansion.

When the Dutch and English first entered the Indian Ocean, the primary goal of both nations was to gain a monopoly in the spice trade. To do this, they had to militarily push out the Portuguese and prevent the other from gaining a foothold. Ultimately, the VOC came out the big Winner taking control of the clove, nutmeg and mace trade of the Moluccas. It also took a considerable portion of the Indonesian pepper trade by force, but not all. With the loss of the Spice Islands, the British shifted their attention to India and its pepper, saltpetre, cotton and indigo. The VOC also turned its eyes to India, but with far less lasting impact. To gain their foothold in India the English and Dutch were faced with two significant challenges: they would need to gain the favour of the Mughals who now controlled most of North India and they would have to push back the Portuguese who were well entrenched along the west coast. The Mughals had left the Portuguese ports mostly alone, preferring to trade with them rather than fight.

Spice trade in the dark ages of Europe.

This chapter narrates the state of world trade during the fall of the Western Roman Empire under waves of Germanic tribe movements during the 'Völkerwanderung' or Migration Period. It contains nine subchapters that are about the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, spice use in Europe during the dark ages, the level of western trade in the early medieval age, Mediterranean trade in the early medieval period, early medieval trade in Europe, the Radhanites: medieval tycoons, the rise of the Gotlanders, Rus' trade with the Muslims and Byzantines through Khazaria, and lastly, Rus' attacks on the Islamic and Byzantine Worlds.

From Competition to Conspiracy

For twenty years, the Dutch and English East India Companies cooperated and competed throughout the Indian Ocean in search of dominance in the spice trade. Conflicts over nutmeg and cloves in Banda and the Moluccas were especially deadly for Europeans and non-Europeans alike. The two companies were constrained in their actions in the Indian Ocean by the nations’ historical ties in Europe and by decisions made by their employers, which ultimately forced them into partnership in 1619 in the wake of overt conflict. That new partnership placed the English in a secondary position. A new type of conflict erupted, one centered on conspiracies. To further trust, the companies required traders to live together in shared houses in the clove-trading posts on Ambon, but the scheme backfired and their intimacy was their undoing.

The Rise of the Dutch Spice Trade in the Middle Ages

For medieval Europe, spices have always been of great significance, so the spice trade has become the object of competition for various countries in Western Europe. With the improvement of navigation technology, countries obsessed with spices have opened up the way to explore the origin of spices and monopolize the spices trade. Among them, the most typical country is the Netherlands. From the perspective of the spice trade, this paper discusses how the beneficiary of the spice trade, the Netherlands, has become a generation of marine hegemons by transferring spice to monopolizing the spice trade.