East Africa: Did you mean...?

Since 1998 the Getty Conservation Institute has been working in partnership with the Institut National du Patrimoine to train conservation technicians to clean, monitor, and maintain mosiacs in situ so that they can be seen and studied in...

Did you know the English East India Company’s tea trade was fueled by the opium trade? The English East India Company (EIC) – also known as the British East India Company – was an immensely successful trading company founded in 1600...

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany is a unique history of the ancient Near East that compellingly presents the life stories of kings, priestesses, merchants, bricklayers, and others. Rather...

The Estado da India (1505-1961) was the name the Portuguese gave to that part of their empire which stretched from India to East Asia. However, in its widest sense, the name includes all Portuguese colonies east of the Cape of Good Hope and...

A map illustrating the markets and goods traded by the East India Company (EIC) with East and Southeast Asia and India around 1800. Incorporated on December 31, 1600, by Queen Elizabeth I's Royal Charter, it was given an initial 15-year monopoly...

The Kingdom of Benin, located in the southern forests of West Africa (modern Nigeria) and formed by the Edo people, flourished from the 13th to 19th century CE. The capital, also called Benin, was the hub of a trade network exclusively controlled...

The ruins of Great Zimbabwe – the capital of the Queen of Sheba, according to an age-old legend – are a unique testimony to the Bantu civilization of the Shona between the 11th and 15th centuries. The city, which covers an area of nearly...

A 1778 allegorical painting commissioned by the East India Company showing the riches of the East being presented to Britannia. Painted by Spyridon Romas. The goods shown include tea, porcelain, and jewels. (British Library, London)

Map of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East c. 1300 BCE, showing the period of Great Powers, with the six large kingdoms and empires (the Hittites, the Mycenaean Civilization, Assyria, Babylonia, Elam and the New Kingdom of Egypt) co-existing...

A plate from the Edo period (1615-1868) in Arita, Saga Prefecture in Japan, 1670-1740. "VOC" is the monogram for the Dutch East India Company, whose name in Dutch is Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie. Inspired by contemporary and previous...