🌟 A2 (MUST) - Case Study: The Spice Trade

Last updated over 3 years ago

17 questions

Instructions

Read excerpts from the BBC article "How Spices Shaped the World" and answer the questions that follow. 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/the-flavours-that-shaped-the-world/

🌟 A2 (MUST) - Case Study: The Spice Trade

Last updated over 3 years ago

17 questions

Instructions

Read excerpts from the BBC article "How Spices Shaped the World" and answer the questions that follow. 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/the-flavours-that-shaped-the-world/

Nearly 2,500 years ago, Arab traders told stories of the ferocious cinnamon bird, or cinnamologus. This large bird made its nest from delicate cinnamon sticks, the traders said. One way to get the cinnamon was to bait the cinnamologus with large chunks of meat. The birds would fly down from their nests, snatch up the meat, and fly back. The precarious cinnamon nests would collapse when the bird returned weighted with its catch. Then quick-witted traders could gather up the fallen cinnamon and take it to market.

As enticing as the tale is, the fabled cinnamologus never existed. The story was most likely invented to ward off curious competitors from attempting to seek out the source of the spice. For many years, the ancient Greeks and Romans were fooled.

It might seem odd that something as seemingly inconsequential as a spice – a food flavouring or something to burn to add aroma to the air – would need such jealous guarding with elaborate tall tales.

Required

But the world’s demand for spices grew throughout the Roman era and into the medieval period, defining economies from India to Europe. This demand gave rise to some of the first truly international trade routes and shaped the structure of the world economy in a way that can still be felt today. Those who controlled the spices could divert the flow of wealth around the world.

But the secret of the origins of spices such as cinnamon could only be kept for so long. In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama made the first sea voyage from Europe to India, via the southernmost tip of Africa. The mission was driven by a desire to find a direct route to the places where spices were plentiful and cheap, cutting out the middlemen. His arrival on India’s Malabar Coast, the heart of the spice trade, marked the start of direct trading between Europe and South East Asia.

Da Gama’s voyage, and that of his country, was a heavy blow to the Arab traders. As well as their financial loss, da Gama maintained a bloody attack on Arab merchants at sea in order to establish and defend the new spice route from India to Europe.

Required

The flow of spices from one part of the world to another sparked the need to develop extensive infrastructure on land and by the coast, says Marijke van der Veen, emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of Leicester. This began in the Roman period, extending through the middle ages.

“This is very much the start of globalisation,” says Van Der Veen. “We see that even more significantly in the medieval period.”

Required

What do you think is meant by the term "infrastructure"?

The result was a lasting change to people’s diets in Europe, which became a lot less bland and monotonous. But more importantly, spices became another way to define what it meant to be wealthy and powerful. This came with a profound social, emotional and economic impact in Europe, says Van Der Veen.

“Spices give the elites opportunity for extravagant display,” says Van Der Veen. “And it emphasises to everybody else that it is out of reach.”

As a result, the hunger for spices went well beyond their aromatic flavour. While spices had been consumed in Asia for most likely as long as there had been people living there, in Europe they became a new symbol of high social status.

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In Europe, you could show off how rich you were by eating food made with spices.

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“The consequences of these trivial products – trivial in that you don't need them for nutrition – are cataclysmic,” says Paul Freedman, a historian at Yale University. “They were the first goods to have such dramatic and unanticipated consequences.”

Those consequences included the colonisation of the New World, after Christopher Columbus took a wrong turn in search of spices, heading westward instead of eastward to reach the Americas.

Required

Christopher Columbus' main goal was to discover America and enslave the people living there.

Compared with its turbulent beginnings, the nature of the spice trade is almost unrecognisable today. Spices are now accessible and ubiquitous, found everywhere from supermarket aisles, corner shops and take-aways to fine-dining restaurants. Where sailing Da Gama’s sea route took months, spices can now be flown across continents in a matter of hours.

But some things have remained constant throughout the centuries, including the place that has remained the heart of the trade – India.

Required

The spice trade looks vastly different than it did hundreds of years ago, but the one thing that has remained the same is the origin of many of our spices: _______ .

"In many ways, the history of globalisation is played out in the story of spices. From tightly controlled origins, the international spice trade unrolled along routes by land and sea to connect much of the world. Today, there is barely a country in the world where spices are not readily accessible.

“It’s a really symbolic trade in the supply chain, because of the connections between different producing and consuming countries,” says Touboulic. “It’s also a symbol of cultural globalisation, because we now consider spices quite ordinary in the west, when we didn’t use to. I can’t imagine Britain going without curries.”

Required

List three reasons why the spice trade is a perfect symbol of the history of globalization.

The process was not always smooth, particularly in terms of its cultural impact. In its early days, the spice trade led to bloodshed and conflict, as well as bringing wealth. One hard-to-ignore legacy of the spice trade is colonialism, says Freedman. “The search for a direct route – i.e. no middlemen – to find the source of spices stimulated European voyages that turned into colonial conquests.”

Turning to the future, the spice trade has many new hurdles to overcome. Adapting and becoming resilient to climate change is likely to be crucial, if the trade is to remain sustainable while keeping up with the ever-growing demand for spices. This will be no mean feat, as their uses in food, health and wellness continue to evolve.

Required

One major problem with the spice trade was that it led to __________, when Europeans who were searching for a direct route to the spice markets began to take over other peoples and lands.

Required

The spice trade is still causing problems today - one major problem it has to overcome is becoming resilient to _______.

🌟 A2 (MUST) - Case Study: The Spice Trade

🌟 A2 (MUST) - Case Study: The Spice Trade

What do you think is meant by the term "infrastructure"?

In Europe, you could show off how rich you were by eating food made with spices.

Christopher Columbus' main goal was to discover America and enslave the people living there.

List three reasons why the spice trade is a perfect symbol of the history of globalization.

Who were the first traders to take control of the global spice market?

Why did these traders tell stories of the cinnamologous bird?

Controlling the spice trade meant also controlling a portion of the world's wealth.

Portuguese explorers, like Vasco da Gama, set sail in the 1400s in order to find natural resources, such as gold and silver, in the Americas.

Although da Gama desperately wanted control of the spice trade, he was not willing to resort to violence to take control.

What do you think is meant by the term "infrastructure"?

In Europe, you could show off how rich you were by eating food made with spices.

What factor made spices a symbol of wealth and social status in Europe?

What do you think is meant by the phrase "unanticipated consequences"?

Christopher Columbus' main goal was to discover America and enslave the people living there.

List three reasons why the spice trade is a perfect symbol of the history of globalization.

Who were the first traders to take control of the global spice market?

Why did these traders tell stories of the cinnamologous bird?

Controlling the spice trade meant also controlling a portion of the world's wealth.

Portuguese explorers, like Vasco da Gama, set sail in the 1400s in order to find natural resources, such as gold and silver, in the Americas.

Although da Gama desperately wanted control of the spice trade, he was not willing to resort to violence to take control.

What factor made spices a symbol of wealth and social status in Europe?

What do you think is meant by the phrase "unanticipated consequences"?