The East Asian 'Mediterranean' - The Indian Ocean World: The First Global Economy and Human-Environment Interaction

We particularly concentrate on the exchange of geographical knowledge including maps, Muslim merchant networks in the East Asian World, the role of pirates and illegal trading activities, the investigation of shipwrecks, the transfer and exchange of knowledge and commodities as well as human movement Comparative historical analysis of both textual and archaeological evidence This team will research general themes with regard to the ‘East Asian Mediterranean’ focusing on three aspects of human-environment interaction: (i) East Asian nation states or ‘territorial’ areas versus the East Asian world, (ii) the nature of exchange relations in the Asian world with a particular emphasis on the roles played by the official Chinese state and private Chinese and foreign merchants trading in the East Asian world, and (iii) the extent of military/political or religious influence on the development of early maritime trade.