Routes of Cross-Cultural Exchange

The Northwest Passage has captured the imagination of nations and explorers for hundreds of years. And today, as global warming reshapes geography, trade along the passage is becoming a reality for the first time. This book provides a sweeping history of the route from the earliest attempts to navigate through its punishing landscape to breaking news about its economic viability in modern day.

The earliest trade between India and other cultures took place through both overland and sea routes. The end of the Silk Road inspired the European "Age of Discovery" in which explorers attempted to find new ways to reach India. India's gems, raw materials, and handmade goods were an alluring prospect to these explorers. Trade Routes to India provides an in-depth look at the politics, economic factors, technology, and people behind what ultimately became the race to the New World.

Since the beginning of exploration, people have searched for easier ways to navigate between waterways and oceans to bolster trade. The Panama Canal demonstrates how innovation, advanced engineering, hard work, and great personal cost resulted in one of modern history's most critical trade routes. This book includes information about the explorers and inventors behind the project, the goods and services traded, and the ways the canal is used today.

In ancient times, the Mediterranean Sea allowed Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and the people of Mesopotamia to trade goods and make cultural connections. In fact, trade routes through the Mediterranean allowed both Greeks and Phoenicians to establish new colonies, extending their reach and leading to immense wealth. Mediterranean Trade Routes provides context for how these routes fostered political relationships, private business, and advances in science.

The Silk Road played a fundamental role in the transmission of art, religion, and goods, including luxury items such as jewelry, spices, textiles, and horses. The opening of trade between cultures as distant as ancient China and Rome also came with a big cost: disease. This colorful book examines the establishment of this sweeping trade route, the explorers who opened trade, and the wide-ranging consequences of the more than 1,300 years of history on one of the world's most important trade routes.

Several trade routes throughout history included the trafficking of slaves. Yet perhaps no routes have had such a profound impact on the lives of as many people as Trans-Atlantic slave networks. Just the journey alone from Africa to Europe, North America, and South America resulted in the deaths of more than a million enslaved Africans. Trans-Atlantic Slave Networks investigates the reasons for the so-called triangular trade, what happened to the slaves themselves and those who traded them, and the lasting consequences of the trade routes.

The Phoenicians were known as intrepid sailors, and their skillful navigation and shipbuilding led to trade routes that brought them glory and economic power. This book investigates the ways that technology helped to form trade partnerships between cultures, which ultimately resulted in the transmission of art, new economic systems, and more.

Between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, trade flourished between sub-Saharan Africa and Arab cultures. Traders exchanged gold, slaves, cloth, and salt along the trans-Saharan routes. This trade was directly responsible for seismic shifts in African economies and the foundation of new empires. This book explores how this complex trade network shaped the history of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.