Sea You Soon: Reflections on Traveling through the Indian Ocean

As trade, commerce, and shipbuilding rise in the Indian Ocean, the Sea Network News staff digs for information by visiting and analyzing such structure.

The crew visited many empires and were particuarly impressed by India. The inherent equality and diversity within India came as a suprise to the team. First of all, the culture granted women more rights by letting them initiate a divorce and own property. Secondly, they borrowed culture voluntarily, therefore, it was different than others. Thanks to the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism through the Indian Ocean, India served a high position in the commerce. However, this trend of liberty and equality is present in other regions.

In Angkor, women served as gladiators, warriors, palace staff, poets, religious teachers. In a neighboring city, Queen Pwa Saw ruled Pagan in the 13th century for over 40 years of reign, which impacted the political and economical structure of India greatly.

The crew then moved to China and analyzed the different factors between the economic and political revival. While there, they became impressed by the freedom exerted by the Tang dynasty, where women were given more rights, However, they also presenced the resurgence of patriarchy due to wave of Confucianism that came to China.

The crew decided to hop on aboard on a junk where they navigated the Indian Ocean with the help and influence of monsoons. After months of depending on the wind, the crew arrived at Eastern Africa in hopes of discovering more information, especially about the Swahili. The tem interacted with the Swahili and realized they spoke Bantu languages. In that journey, they learned the Swahili traded gold, ivory, quartz, leopard skins, slaves, iron, timber with Greek, Arabic, and Roman merchants. The

crew also analyzed the rapid-impact commerce and trade had on Africa, considering the sudden evolution of villages to towns, and chiefs becoming kings. Africa was known for slaves, obviously, slave trade. The crew members also extracted information that large amounts of slaves were moved to Southern Iraq, and they revolted [Fifteen-Year Revolt (868-883)].

The team found a document written by an Alexandrian merchant named Cosmas Indicopleustes who narrated his crew’s failed departure due to fear of Monsoons. After deciphering what the document stated, the crew was afraid of what they read and decided to stay in Africa and keep on investigating. After more than ten years in the continent, the SeaNN crew realized that slavery was actually helpful to the creation of a network that included Africa into the Indian Ocean trade,

In conlusion, there are many things that shaped the world during that time. For instance, Islam, Jainism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism were large religious ideals that were spread through the Indian Ocean ports. We can also see a very big distinction between other trade networks,specifically the Silk Road since the products and goods in the Indian Ocean Trade were not as luxurious as the ones traded there. Still, one thing we must not forget is the fact that society was also changing and making an impact. The tolerance practiced during this era of connection was unlike anything seen before and that is the main reason why many of the practices adopoted from it still work today.