Why Study the Indian Ocean

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Why Study the Indian Ocean?

• Defining regions and cultural interactions in
  World History
• By Whitney Howarth

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World History

• Emphasizes interaction and exchange between
  regions.
• Examines parallel processes unfolding in two or
  more cultural regions.
• Celebrates cultural connections across
  boundaries.
• Uses themes to compare and contrast the human
  experience (trade, migration, disease, food,
  etc.)
• Doesnt require you know everything about
  everyplace in the world!

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Zheng He

• Chinese Admiral of the Ming Dynastys
• Treasure Fleet Powerful diplomat and
• eunuch.
• Sailed 7 times with fleet into the Indian
• Ocean, 1405-1433
• Sailed with over 300 ships in his fleet
• 27,000 men on board doctors, carpenters, sail
  makers, botanists, diplomats and soldiers
• Purpose TRIBUTE for Ming Emperor

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The Treasure Fleet

• "Treasure ships", used by the commander of the
  fleet and his deputies (nine-masted, about 120
  meters (400 ft) long and 50 m (160 ft) wide).
• "Horse ships", carrying tribute goods and repair
  material for the fleet (eight-masted, about 103 m
  (339 ft) long and 42 m (138 ft) wide)
• "Supply ships", containing food-staple for the
  crew (seven-masted, about 78 m (257 ft) long and
  35 m (115 ft) wide).
• "Troop transports", six-masted, about 67 m (220
  ft) long and 25 m (83 ft) wide).
• "Fuchuan warships", five-masted, about 50 m (165
  ft) long).
• "Patrol boats", eight-oared, about 37 m (120
  feet) long).
• "Water tankers", with 1 month supply of fresh
  water.

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Ming China ---?
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Zheng He vs. Columbus
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World History

• Defines new regions of study
• Incorporates new perspectives
• Goes beyond winner/loser model of history!

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What is a region?

• It is important to see the history of the world
  in a new perspective, beyond the traditional
  units of study, such as
• The Empire
• The Civilization
• The Nation-State
• 
  WHY???

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Because

• There are people who live outside of those
  regional units, who cross them and carry culture
  with them who are just as ESSENTIAL to the
  historic process.
• Diaspora Groups
• Traders/Merchants
• Migrants (short or long term)
• Missionaries
• Sojourners/Adventures seekers
• Nomadic communities and tribal peoples, etc.

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World Regions

• World regions are multi-country agglomerations,
  defined not by their supposed physical separation
  from one another (as are continents), but rather
  on the basis of important historical and cultural
  bonds.
• -- Martin Lewis and Karen Wigen
• The Myth of Continents (UC press, 1997

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Africa is no longer a region in of itself WHY
should it be?
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East Africans define themselves as a part of the
Indian Ocean region
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Depending how we draw our regions, might we not
say Europe is a subcontinent (thanks to the
Caucus Mountains) and say India is a continent?
After all, the Himalayas are a lot bigger
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Hindu Cosmos

• The first maps of the world emphasized cultural
  values above and beyond physical geography

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Pre-Medieval European T-O Maps
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• Early Christian maps divided the world into four
  known regions, Europe, Arabia, Africa and Asia
  putting
• the Garden of Eden somewhere between Asia and
  Arabia

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11th century Arab map

• Arab traders began creating maps for navigation
  like this one by Moroccan geographer Ali-Idrisi.
  
• What region does this map depict?

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• Spun 180 degrees you may see that this is a
  map of Egypt, the Sinai peninsula, the horn of
  Africa and Arabia. The Red Sea and Persian Gulf
  open up to the Indian Ocean

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• Medieval European mappa mundi
• This 13th century psalter map depicts Jesus
  standing above the world as overseer and places
  Jerusalem at the very center.

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Map by German geographer Henricus Martellus, 15th
century
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Chinese map of the World drawn in 1790
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Oceans arent empty

• long distance economic networks often cut
  across the boundaries of cultural regions.
  Capital seeks mobility, and the cheapest form of
  transportation has historically been water-borne.
  Accordingly, it is essentialto deploy a
  regionalization scheme centered on oceansrather
  than continents or cultural blocs.
  -- The Myth of Continents
• So

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Put on your sea goggles!

• A sea-centered perspective
• is capable of revealing complex webs of
  exchange that help us to see history (formerly
  conventional land-based) in unexpected and
  exciting new ways!

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So we invite you this Week to come along Dare to
see the world from a completely new perspective!