“Trade and civilization in the Indian Ocean” is a book in which Chaudhuri is trying to highlight the importance of the Indian Ocean in World History evolution. The Indian Ocean had multiple roles in this process: it was a spectacular chain trade, but also a chain of spreading cultural or social values. Chaudhuri is analyzing this phenomenon by presenting the rise of Islam, trading networks as well as the Portuguese Empire or the Dutch and English influence in India (East India Companies). The book is structured in two great parts: Part 1 – General problems and historical events and Part 2 – Structure and la longue durée, each part having more chapters. I will concentrate my study on the first part of the book and I will present summarily the main facts of the second part of the book.

The first chapter of the book “Trade and civilization in the Indian Ocean: social, cultural, economic and temporal dimension” tackles about the two different outlooks on trade in two different periods: the pre and post – Industrial Revolution. A first point for pre-modern trade is the expansion of the trade area of the Indian Ocean. For example the extent of this network to the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea lead to an important Jewish influence on the activity of some pre-modern merchants (Jewish Community from North Africa). At the same period the piracy was also very important and it affected mostly China. Asian people were not enough prepared to cope with pirates or to defend their merchants against attacks at sea.
The Indian Ocean was not dominated by any particular nations or Empires, that’s why the arrival of Portuguese, which was a violent one, coincided with the imposition of their supremacy on a pacific region before. At that moment we pass through a process of armed trading. India, which was a great power because of the volume and the value of commodities exchanged, had no interest to become a sea-power, so the Portuguese could become very influent in the region.
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