Global Maritime Expansion of Before 1450: The Pacific Ocean

17 Abril 2018, 10:00 • Shiv Kumar Singh

• Over a period of several thousand years, peoples originally from the Malay Peninsula crossed the water to settle the islands of the East Indies, New Guinea, the Melanesian and Polynesian islands, the Marquesas, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands out to Hawaii.
• Polynesian expansion was the result of planned voyages undertaken with the intention of establishing colonies
• Polynesian mariners navigated by the stars and by their observations of ocean currents and evidence of land
• Malayo-Indonesians colonized the island of Madagascar in a series of voyages that continued through the fifteenth century
• Arab seafarers used the regular pattern of the monsoon winds to establish trade routes in the Indian Ocean
• These trade routes flourished when the rise of Islam created new markets and new networks of Muslim traders
• The Chinese Ming dynasty sponsored a series of voyages to the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433
• The Ming voyages were carried out on a grand scale, involving fleets of over sixty large “treasure ships” and hundreds of smaller support vessels
• The treasure ships carried out trade in luxury goods including silk and precious metals as well as stimulating diplomatic relations with various African and Asian states
• The voyages, which were not profitable and inspired opposition in court, were ended in 1433.
• During the relatively warm centuries of the early Middle Ages, the Vikings, navigating by the stars and the seas, explored and settled: Iceland, Greenland & Newfoundland
• When a colder climate returned after 1200, the northern settlements in Greenland and the settlement in Newfoundland were abandoned