Indian Ocean trade never truly disappeared. Beginning in the 15th century, however, with the expansion of European exploration and China’s withdrawal from international affairs, the world’s economic ...

Timeline: A Chronology Of the Ming Voyages First Voyage 1405–1406. Zheng He commanded a fleet of 317 ships, almost 28,000 men, their arms and supplies. ... Chinese Trade in the Indian Ocean. China's ...

Chintz, calico, pyjamas: How India’s Indian Ocean textile trade rose in the east and set in the west Craftsmen and traders from the subcontinent influenced global tastes in fabrics for centuries.

Histories of pearl diving in the Indian Ocean – as in a central scene of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea – are continued in today’s illegal abalone trade.

The Indian Ocean became one of the great channels of trade between nations. Greek merchants from Egypt exploited the monsoon winds to ensure a swift passage to south India.

LAMU, Kenya—Al Qaeda militants are disrupting one of Africa’s most ambitious infrastructure projects, forestalling Kenya’s plans for establishing a new regional trade hub on the Indian Ocean ...

In the 17th century, the Indian ocean slave trade was arguably on a bigger scale than the Atlantic slave trade. The hub of this vile industry was in modern-day Tanzania, an area that specialized ...

The Indian Ocean is the world’s third-largest body of water and has become a growing area of competition between China and India. The two regional powers’ moves to exert influence in the ocean ...