The Indian Ocean Trade

Any trade in the Indian Ocean must go through the Strait of Malacca, this narrow strait, thus causing a lot of traffic. To this day, it is the busiest waterway. Due to the slowness, these ships are sitting ducks for pirates; I mean all they have to do is wait for a ship to slowly ooze by. So what is also to this day, the Strait of Malacca has the most frequent pirate attacks.

Bananas are exported from the poor towns on the east coast of Africa and into Southeast Asia. Along with bananas are the culture and skills of the Bantu people. Their specialties, ironworking, farming techniques, and animal husbandry, spread throughout Africa and ended up in those poor towns. People get salt in the Sub-Saharan trade. In the west in Ghana, there’s gold. Wealthy empires like Ghana (who fell and get replaced by Mali) and, in the east, you get several trade empires such as Mogadishu and Mombasa all getting their wealth from the Indian Ocean trade routes.