Indian Ocean DBQ

From 1500- circa 1600 the Indian Ocean was a flourishing trade center that had various central locations run by some of the most powerful countries at the time. This led to a bulk of issues and a number of benefits. The Portuguese were a very powerful leader of the region and were known for their harsh culture and, almost pirate like in some ways of their customs. Their power and influence made a considerable difference in the culture and regional power throughout trade in the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese transformed maritime trade in the Indian Ocean to a large extent because of the threatening power changes, corrupt trading, and the way the trade goods’ quality transformed over time. The Portuguese ended up making many changes for the better

The first time this is brought up is when the Muslims asked the sultan for cannons to fend off the Portuguese. Many years after the Portuguese takeover, the Ruler of the Sultanate of Aceh wrote a letter requesting cannons to stop the Portuguese ships from attacking and taking their goods (Doc. 4). This proves how the Muslims needed reinforcements to even get close to stopping the Portuguese from raiding the ships to steal their cargo and enslave their men. This letter was sent shortly after the Portuguese defended the Turks from taking possession of the city (Sourcing 3). The next example of the Portuguese madness was when they established a heavy tax for passing ships to pay. The Portuguese forced every ship that passed to carry a safe conduct pass, which was issued for a hefty fee. If they did not pay it, their ships and cargo would be seized (Doc. 5). This shows how irresponsible and how senseless the Portuguese were while they had possession of the region. On the other hand, they did end up starting to respect the Muslims around their area more and starting to trust them. Muslim brokers had great authority and usually handled all transactions at the ports. This earned them a sense of respect and trust throughout the area (Doc. 6). This shows how the Portuguese ended up giving some respect to the Muslims and did not just disrespect them as they had in the past. In the end,

In the early 1500s, the Muslim merchants were known as some of the greatest traders in the world. They would sail to all parts of the world to distribute goods and compile a variety of different cultural customs. They also traveled to collect more desirable goods to sell to wealthy buyers for large profits (Doc. 2). Their very admirable reputation let them sell their products to wealthy people to then live rich lives and control all of the trade going on in and around Calicut. Long after the Portuguese acquired power, they were brought very poor quality product. This product just happened to be pepper. The reason they are brought poor products is due to the fact that the king of Portugal made a cheap contract with the King of Cochin for spices (Doc. 6). The spice that originated from Cochin was distributed among many contracted countries, all getting the quality that they chose to pay for (B.K. 2).This is another reason that shows how large the quality of product differned based solely on location and the amount of money that was willing to be paid. This information, released in Venice, could have changed the way Italian merchants went about trading with the Portuguese and whether they offered their higher end products or not (Sourcing 4). On the other hand, a box made for trade shows the different reasons that certain products were made rather than how much or what