80
4 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (1)
Cinnamon Route on sailing rafts or in double-outriggers to settle Madagascar. The
likelihood that they were Spice Islanders or genetically related to Spice Islanders is
therefore high. Miller’s suggestion, that the indigenous people sailing the Cinnamon
Route may eventually have lost their role as independent traders and come under
Malay or Javanese control, seems plausible. That the island of Ambon in the southern Spice Islands may have been home to at least one group of colonists is suggested
by the fact that this is the one Spice Island place name that seems to have survived
in Madagascar.
The question of when the Cinnamon Route was established and when
Madagascar was first and subsequently settled perhaps should be considered in an
historical context that takes account of surges in the international demand for spices
and associated destabilizations in the spice trade. The speed with which the Indian
Ocean could be crossed by double-masted double-outriggers driven by strong monsoonal winds and powerful currents would have given indigenous traders a time
advantage over their foreign rivals in getting spices via Rhapta to Egypt and Europe.
Surely it must have been just such an advantage that led to the initiation and regular
use of the Cinnamon Route.
With spices so keenly sought in Rome, competition and conflict amongst international traders and perhaps even amongst indigenous traders was inevitable. Indeed,
competing attempts to take control of the supply sources for spices was to shape the
history of Island Southeast Asia for the next 1,600 years. The history of invasion
and slaughter of males on Madagascar, possibly implied by the genetic evidence,
suggests that there was little hope for indigenous spice traders to maintain lasting control of spice sources or even of some of the spice trading. The spice
trade outlasted the Roman Empire. Once established in Europe, the demand for
spices continued unabated. Repeated foreign invasions and exploitation of the Spice
Islands and the Spice Islanders in the end involved major European powers and
lasted down to the end of the 18th century.
In an era when spices can be bought cheaply in Western supermarkets, the enormous importance and lucrativeness of the ancient spice trade can hardly be grasped.
It is far from extravagant to claim, as many historians have done, that the spice trade
shaped world history for millennia, prompted the Spanish to cross the Pacific from
America, motivated the long-distance European oceanic explorations of Columbus
and Magellan, triggered competing European explorations and colonizations and
played an early part in the development of the competitive European global empirebuilding that led to the Boer War and World War I. Its impact on the history of Island
Southeast Asia was fundamental. The opening up of the archipelago over 1,600
years to foreign, local, European and Asian cultures and religions, by traders seeking competitively to dominate and control the spice trade and by the missionaries
who followed the traders, led to the overlaying of indigenous cultures and religions, often with brutal exploitation of indigenous peoples. For indigenous Island
Southeast Asian peoples this has led effectively to an almost total loss of knowledge of their early history. As far as we know, there are no traditional histories or
genealogies preserved in Madagascar or in the Spice Islands that can open windows
on their long migration histories.
4 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (1)
Cinnamon Route on sailing rafts or in double-outriggers to settle Madagascar. The
likelihood that they were Spice Islanders or genetically related to Spice Islanders is
therefore high. Miller’s suggestion, that the indigenous people sailing the Cinnamon
Route may eventually have lost their role as independent traders and come under
Malay or Javanese control, seems plausible. That the island of Ambon in the southern Spice Islands may have been home to at least one group of colonists is suggested
by the fact that this is the one Spice Island place name that seems to have survived
in Madagascar.
The question of when the Cinnamon Route was established and when
Madagascar was first and subsequently settled perhaps should be considered in an
historical context that takes account of surges in the international demand for spices
and associated destabilizations in the spice trade. The speed with which the Indian
Ocean could be crossed by double-masted double-outriggers driven by strong monsoonal winds and powerful currents would have given indigenous traders a time
advantage over their foreign rivals in getting spices via Rhapta to Egypt and Europe.
Surely it must have been just such an advantage that led to the initiation and regular
use of the Cinnamon Route.
With spices so keenly sought in Rome, competition and conflict amongst international traders and perhaps even amongst indigenous traders was inevitable. Indeed,
competing attempts to take control of the supply sources for spices was to shape the
history of Island Southeast Asia for the next 1,600 years. The history of invasion
and slaughter of males on Madagascar, possibly implied by the genetic evidence,
suggests that there was little hope for indigenous spice traders to maintain lasting control of spice sources or even of some of the spice trading. The spice
trade outlasted the Roman Empire. Once established in Europe, the demand for
spices continued unabated. Repeated foreign invasions and exploitation of the Spice
Islands and the Spice Islanders in the end involved major European powers and
lasted down to the end of the 18th century.
In an era when spices can be bought cheaply in Western supermarkets, the enormous importance and lucrativeness of the ancient spice trade can hardly be grasped.
It is far from extravagant to claim, as many historians have done, that the spice trade
shaped world history for millennia, prompted the Spanish to cross the Pacific from
America, motivated the long-distance European oceanic explorations of Columbus
and Magellan, triggered competing European explorations and colonizations and
played an early part in the development of the competitive European global empirebuilding that led to the Boer War and World War I. Its impact on the history of Island
Southeast Asia was fundamental. The opening up of the archipelago over 1,600
years to foreign, local, European and Asian cultures and religions, by traders seeking competitively to dominate and control the spice trade and by the missionaries
who followed the traders, led to the overlaying of indigenous cultures and religions, often with brutal exploitation of indigenous peoples. For indigenous Island
Southeast Asian peoples this has led effectively to an almost total loss of knowledge of their early history. As far as we know, there are no traditional histories or
genealogies preserved in Madagascar or in the Spice Islands that can open windows
on their long migration histories.