Spice trade facts for kids

The spice route was a route between Asia and Europe.

A few hundred years ago, the rich people wanted spices. Spices did not grow in Europe, so they had to be brought from Asia. People made a route to go from Europe to Asia to buy spices. The route was very difficult and so the spices were expensive. People tried to find ways cheaper than the spice route, like going the other way around the world. This is how many things were discovered, like the Western Hemisphere.

Images for kids

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  The economically important Silk Road (red) and spice trade routes (blue) were blocked by the Seljuk Empire c. 1090, triggering the Crusades, and by the Ottoman Empire c. 1453, which spurred the Age of Discovery and European Colonialism.

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  The spice trade from India attracted the attention of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and subsequently the Roman empire.

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  Austronesian proto-historic and historic maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean

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  Spice Bazaar used for the spice trade during the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul

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  Portuguese India Armadas trade routes (blue) since Vasco da Gama 1498 travel and its rival Manila-Acapulco galleons and Spanish treasure fleets (white) established in 1568

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  Image of Calicut, India from Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg's atlas Civitates orbis terrarum, 1572.

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  Dutch ships in Table Bay docking at the Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope, 1762.

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  One of the Borobudur ships from the 8th century. These were depictions of large Javanese outrigger vessels. One is shown here with the characteristic tanja sail of Southeast Asian Austronesians.

See also

In Spanish: Comercio de especias para niños