Trade routes: Did you mean...?

Timbuktu (Timbuctoo) is a city in Mali, West Africa which was an important trade centre of the Mali Empire which flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries. The city, founded c. 1100, gained wealth from access to and control of the trade...

By the early 13th century (c. 1200 CE), long-distance trade networks across Eurasia and the Mediterranean had regained a level of interconnectivity not seen since late antiquity. After the political fragmentation that followed the fall of...

The Portuguese colonised Malacca (modern Melaka) on the southwest coast of the Malay peninsula from 1511 and kept it until 1641 when the Dutch took over. The port controlled the Malay Straits which lead from the Indian Ocean (the Andaman...

Between the 7th and 4th centuries BCE, the Mediterranean functioned as a highly interconnected zone of maritime exchange, shaped by the expanding networks of Phoenician and Hellenic communities. Originating from the Levant, Phoenician traders...

Goa, located on the west coast of India, was a Portuguese colony from 1510 to 1961. The small coastal area was conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque (c. 1453-1515) and became an important trade hub for the Eastern spice trade. Goa was the capital...

The ancient Mediterranean was a busy place with trading ships sailing in all directions to connect cities and cultures. The Greeks were so keen on the rewards of trade and commerce that they colonized large parts of the coastal Mediterranean...

The English East India Company (EIC) was established by Royal Charter on 31 December 1600 under Queen Elizabeth I (reign 1558–1603), granting it a monopoly on English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. Initially conceived as a commercial...

This map illustrates the main maritime and overland trade arteries that bound the Roman Empire together between the first and third centuries CE. From grain fleets in the Mediterranean to camel caravans across the desert and river barges...

The Hanseatic League (c. 13th–17th centuries) was a powerful network of merchant guilds and cities that dominated trade across northern Europe for centuries. Emerging in the late Middle Ages, the League united towns from Lübeck, Hamburg...

Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506 CE, also known as Cristoffa Corombo in Ligurian and Cristoforo Colombo in Italian) was a Genoese explorer (identified as Italian) who became famous in his own time as the man who discovered the New World...