Historic trade routes

[sethos]

One of the oldest trade routes leads from the Baltic Sea to southern Europe
(amber, furs, salt, pottery).
Another led from Cyprus to Babylon and Egypt (copper)
The most famous trade route leads from China to Rome (yes, the romans knew silk!)

Unfortunately, that are all historic trade routes I know. Do you know more?
What influences on civilisation came with them?

 

[Xen]

dont forget the route from Rome to China, in which the Romans traded glass to china (the silk road worked both ways

that said, any major city in history will have soem major trade routes asslciated with it; Rome, and Alexandria were the virtually kings of trade in ancient times, durign the middle ages, Northern Italy, and constantinople became the main areas of european trade.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

From Carthage to just about anywhere in the mediteranean.

Come to think of it, from anywhere in the mediteranean to anywhere in the mediteranean.

 

[sethos]

Oh, yes, Carthage - I forgot, tin and coal from the British Isles!

 

[sethos]

And olibanum and myrrh from the queen of saba - I think itwas somewhere in ethiopia.

 

[blindside]

The Indian Ocean from the eastern coast of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf to the western coast of India. Pretty big trade route run by the Arabs.

 

[bombshoo]

In North America, the Indians traded heavily...I remember hearing of things from Meso America ending up in Ohio...I am not sure how they worked, and I would guess there were three or four middle men between there, but I know trade did flourish, even when the Indians lacked a good pack animal like a camal, horse, or donkey.

 

[sethos]

I really don't know if there were trade routes from Russia and Siberia to the Greek and
Roman peninsulas 2000 years ago - does anybody know?

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

There was a branch of the Silk Road which went along the north side of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Antwerp in Belgium was at one stage the centre of trade for western Europe.

 

[Plotinus]

And olibanum and myrrh from the queen of saba - I think itwas somewhere in ethiopia.

You mean Yemen - the trade routes went overland, north up the Arabian peninsula.

But Ethiopia was at the heart of a massive trade network that stretched from Zanzibar to India in ancient times, and up to the Mediterranean, all based around the Red Sea.

Another great trade route was the route over the Sahara Desert between Ghana (and, later, Mali) and the Muslim dynasties in modern Morocco and Tunisia. Thousands of camel-mounted caravans would make the month-long journey throughout the late Middle Ages: most of the gold in circulation in Renaissance Italy had been mined in Mali.

The Roman trade route east passed through Edessa, which was sometimes an independent city and sometimes under Roman rule. Edessa became great as the trade to and from the orient passed through it. More importantly, this was where ideas, beliefs, religions passed between the east and the Roman empire: Edessa therefore occupies a key place in religioius history.

London is also a very ancient trading centre, the gate of entry to Britain from the sea, which is one of the reasons it was founded by refugees from Troy (I'm reliably informed!). Another city which became prominent in this way was Oxford, built at a natural crossroads in the centre of England and surrounded by rivers on three sides.

 

[Nobody]

The Suez Canal and the Panama Canal,

 

[allhailIndia]

The trade route between the South and South Eastern Coasts of India and the Mediterranean, formed the source of most spices for the Mediterranean civilizations. Various peoples have monopolized this trade...from Greeks, to Romans to Arabs to Portuguese, Dutch and English.

Equally important was the trade in horses between Arabia and much of India which was crucial for many Indian rulers to maintain large bodies of horsemen.

 

[YNCS]

How about the route between Carthage (and various other Punic cities) and the English tin mines in Cornwall?

 

[sydhe]

There was a two-headed route to India, one from the mouth of the Tigris-Euphrates through the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and India, the other from Egypt through the Red Sea. These routes eventually continued to the Spice Islands.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Really early Assyria had a trade route between the Zagros Mountains (for tin) and Annatolia (for Copper). In addition to being profitable in trade, it was needed to make Bronze.

Also, in North Americam there is the trading triangle of New England rum for slaves, slaves traded to the Carribean for Molasses, and Molasses traded to New England to make rum

 

[jonatas]

How about the route between Carthage (and various other Punic cities) and the English tin mines in Cornwall?

yes this is a good one... i think there is some speculation concerning this route and how it changed... perhaps originally the Iberians from Galicia served as a kind of middleman for the Carthagians, bringing tin from Cornwall to the Carthage via sea route and through the strait of Gibraltar... then eventually this route was superceded, and the tin was brought directly across the continent through the rivers in modern France into the Western Med, under Carthage's control, thus eliminating the middleman...

 

[jonatas]

durign the middle ages, Northern Italy, and constantinople became the main areas of european trade.

of course, when the case of Medieval Iberia is considered, especially Islamic Iberia, then one must emphasize the Islamic Mediterranean, ie. Morroco, Egypt, and even deeper into Africa, also the Near East, Baghdad, and ultimately even India and China... these trade routes also disseminated science and technology too

 

[Steve Thompson]

What about the mess of ancient sea routes in South East Asia? Malaya, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, India, Ceylon, etc. all traded with each other by sea for centuries.