Indian Ocean: Indian Perspectives

8 Maio 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

Summary of the class--

·         Of all the Oceans of the world, the IO is particularly unique.

            Partly land locked. Its waters remain warm throughout the year.

·         It has a long list of sovereign littoral states.

            Includes 15 African, 24 Asian, 4 Australasian, and 2 states in the Oceanic region.

·         Offers prime Sea Lines of Communications (SLOC) Linking East Asia and Oceania with Asian heartland, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and         the Americas (via both the Atlantic and the Pacific).

·         Its waters touch the shores of over 40 countries and nearly 40% of the world population.

·         Two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments and one-third of the bulk cargo cross the Indian Ocean

·         It is a region of dynamic power contestation between several global powers – but most importantly China and India.

Currently both New Delhi and Beijing are competing against each other to expand their respective maritime influences in the greater Indian Ocean region. 

·         What drives these strategic ambitions?

·         What is the future of Indian Ocean region in light of the competition between these two rival military superpowers?
Hyper nationalism

·         Exaggerated Sense of their place and position in the Indian Ocean Region

·         Contested  Scholarship

·         Greater India School - India (Panikkar to Bose)

·         China extended beyond China -Presented through the eyes of Sinophiles

(eg. Gavin Menezes to Martin Jacques)

Encounters With Europe by Indian Ocean States & America (1450–1550)

3 Maio 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

Summary of the class--------------------Indian Ocean States: Reactions

• When Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498 he made a very poor impression with his simple gifts.
• Nonetheless, the Portuguese were determined to control the Indian Ocean trade
• Their superior ships and firepower gave them the ability to do so
• In order to assert their control, the Portuguese bombarded the Swahili city-states in 1505, captured the Indian port of Goa in 1510, and took Hormuz in 1515
• Extending their reach eastward, Portuguese forces captured Malacca in 1511 and set up a trading post at Macao in southern China in 1557
• The Portuguese used their control over the major ports to require that all spices be carried in Portuguese ships
• Also that all other ships purchase Portuguese passports and pay customs duties to the Portuguese
• Reactions to this Portuguese aggression varied
• The Mughal emperors took no action while
• The Ottomans resisted and were able at least to maintain superiority in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf
• Some smaller states cooperated with the Portuguese; others tried evasion and resistance.
• The Portuguese never gained complete control of the Indian Ocean trade
• They did dominate it enough to bring themselves considerable profit and to break the Italian city-states’ monopoly on pepper.

§  The America: -
While the Portuguese built a maritime trading empire in Africa and Asia, the Spanish built a territorial empire in the Americas

• The reasons for the difference are to be found in the isolation of Amerindian communities and their lack of resistance to Old World diseases.
• The Arawak were an agricultural people who mined and worked gold but did not trade it over long distances and had no iron
• Spanish wars killed tens of thousands of Arakaws and undermined their economy;
• By 1502, the remaining Arawak of Hispaniola were forced to serve as laborers for the Spanish
• What the Spanish did in the Antilles was an extension of Spanish actions against the Muslims in the previous centuries
• They defeated non-Christians and put them and their land under Christian control
• The actions of conquistadors in other parts of the Caribbean followed the same pattern
• On the mainland, Hernan Cortes relied on native allies, cavalry charges, steel swords, and cannon to defeat the forces of the Aztec Empire and capture the Tenochtitlan
• The conquest was also aided by the spread of smallpox among the Aztecs
• Similarly, Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire was made possible by:
• The prior spread of smallpox among the Inca population
• The dissatisfaction of the Inca Empire’s recently conquered peoples
• And by Spanish cannon and steel swords 

Encounters With Europe by Indian Ocean States & America (1450–1550)

26 Abril 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

Summary of the class--------------------Indian Ocean States: Reactions

• When Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498 he made a very poor impression with his simple gifts.
• Nonetheless, the Portuguese were determined to control the Indian Ocean trade
• Their superior ships and firepower gave them the ability to do so
• In order to assert their control, the Portuguese bombarded the Swahili city-states in 1505, captured the Indian port of Goa in 1510, and took Hormuz in 1515
• Extending their reach eastward, Portuguese forces captured Malacca in 1511 and set up a trading post at Macao in southern China in 1557
• The Portuguese used their control over the major ports to require that all spices be carried in Portuguese ships
• Also that all other ships purchase Portuguese passports and pay customs duties to the Portuguese
• Reactions to this Portuguese aggression varied
• The Mughal emperors took no action while
• The Ottomans resisted and were able at least to maintain superiority in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf
• Some smaller states cooperated with the Portuguese; others tried evasion and resistance.
• The Portuguese never gained complete control of the Indian Ocean trade
• They did dominate it enough to bring themselves considerable profit and to break the Italian city-states’ monopoly on pepper.

§  The America: -
While the Portuguese built a maritime trading empire in Africa and Asia, the Spanish built a territorial empire in the Americas

• The reasons for the difference are to be found in the isolation of Amerindian communities and their lack of resistance to Old World diseases.
• The Arawak were an agricultural people who mined and worked gold but did not trade it over long distances and had no iron
• Spanish wars killed tens of thousands of Arakaws and undermined their economy;
• By 1502, the remaining Arawak of Hispaniola were forced to serve as laborers for the Spanish
• What the Spanish did in the Antilles was an extension of Spanish actions against the Muslims in the previous centuries
• They defeated non-Christians and put them and their land under Christian control
• The actions of conquistadors in other parts of the Caribbean followed the same pattern
• On the mainland, Hernan Cortes relied on native allies, cavalry charges, steel swords, and cannon to defeat the forces of the Aztec Empire and capture the Tenochtitlan
• The conquest was also aided by the spread of smallpox among the Aztecs
• Similarly, Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire was made possible by:
• The prior spread of smallpox among the Inca population
• The dissatisfaction of the Inca Empire’s recently conquered peoples
• And by Spanish cannon and steel swords 

European Expansion(Spain) in Indian & Pacific Ocean 1400–1550 & Encounters with Europe, 1450–1550

24 Abril 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

Spanish Voyages: - When Christopher Columbus approached the Spanish crown with his project of finding a new route to Asia, the Portuguese had already established their route to the Indian Ocean

·         The King and Queen of Spain agreed to fund a modest voyage of discovery,

Columbus set out in 1492 with letters of introduction to Asian rulers and an Arabic interpreter.

·         After three voyages, Columbus was still certain that he had found Asia, but other Europeans realized that he had discovered entirely new lands

·         These new discoveries led the Spanish and the Portuguese to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they divided the world between them along a line drawn down the center of the North Atlantic.

·         Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage across the Pacific confirmed Portugal’s claim to the Molucca Islands and established the Spanish claim to the Philippines

·         Encounters with Europe, 1450–1550
Western Africa: - During the fifteenth century many Africans welcomed the Portuguese and profited from their trade, in which they often held the upper hand

·         In return for their gold, Africans received from the Portuguese merchants a variety of Asian, African, and European goods including firearms

·         Interaction between the Portuguese and African rulers varied from place to place

·         The oba (king) of the powerful kingdom of Benin sent an ambassador to Portugal and established a royal monopoly on trade with the Portuguese

·         Benin exported a number of goods, including some slaves, and its rulers showed a mild interest in Christianity

·         After 1538, Benin purposely limited its contact with the Portuguese, declining to receive missionaries and closing the market in male slaves

·         The kingdom of Kongo had fewer goods to export and consequently relied more on the slave trade

·         When the Christian King Afonso I lost his monopoly over the slave trade his power was weakened and some of his subjects rose in revolt
Eastern Africa: - In Eastern Africa, some Muslim states were suspicious of the Portuguese, while others welcomed the Portuguese as allies in their struggles against their neighbors

·         On the Swahili Coast, Malindi befriended the Portuguese and was spared when the Portuguese attacked and looted many of the other Swahili city-states in 1505.

·         Christian Ethiopia sought and gained Portuguese support in its war against the Muslim forces of Adal

·         The Muslims were defeated, but Ethiopia was unable to make a long-term alliance with the Portuguese because the Ethiopians refused to transfer their religious loyalty from the patriarch of Alexandria to the Roman pope 

European Expansion(Portugal) in Indian & Pacific Ocean 1400–1550

19 Abril 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

• The Iberian kingdoms sponsored voyages of exploration for a number of reasons :
• Adventurous personalities of their leaders
• Long-term trends in European historical development
• The revival of trade
• The struggle with Islam for control of the Mediterranean
• Curiosity about the outside world
• The alliances between rulers and merchants
• The city-states of northern Italy had no incentive to explore Atlantic trade routes
• They had established a system of alliances and trade with the Muslims that gave them a monopoly on access to Asian goods
• Also, Italian ships were designed for the calm waters of the Mediterranean and could not stand up to the violent weather of the Atlantic.
• The Iberian kingdoms had a history of centuries of warfare with Muslims
• They had no significant share in the Mediterranean trade, but  had advanced shipbuilding and cannon technology
• They were open to new geographical knowledge, and had exceptional leaders.

• Portuguese Voyages:
  The Portuguese gained more knowledge of the sources of gold and slaves south of the Sahara when their forces, led by Prince Henry, captured the North African caravan city of Ceuta.
• Prince Henry (“the Navigator”) then sponsored a research and navigation institute at Sagres in order to collect information about and send expeditions to the African lands south of North Africa
• The staff of Prince Henry’s research institute in Sagres studied and improved navigational instruments including the compass and the astrolabe
• They also designed a new vessel, the caravel, whose small size, shallow draft, combination of square and lateen sails, and cannon made it well suited for the task of exploration
• Portuguese explorers cautiously explored the African coast, reaching Cape Verde in 1444 and learning how to return to Portugal faster by sailing northwest into the Atlantic in order to pick up the prevailing westerly winds that would blow them back to Portugal
• The Portuguese voyages were initially financed by income from the properties held by Prince Henry’s Order of Christ
• In the 1440s, the voyages began to produce a financial return, first from trade in slaves, and then from the gold trade
   
• Beginning in 1469 the process of exploration picked up speed as private commercial enterprises began to get involved
• The Lisbon merchant Fernao Gomes sent expeditions that discovered and developed the island of Sao Tome and explored the Gold Coast
• Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama rounded the tip of Africa and established contact with India, thus laying the basis for Portugal’s maritime trading empire.