The Spice Trail episode 2: Kate Humble embarks on a journey around the fabled spice islands of eastern Indonesia in search of two spices that launched epic voyages of discovery, caused bloody wars and shaped empires – nutmeg and cloves. These two spices, grown on an archipelago of tiny volcanic islands, drew European explorers in search of unbelievable wealth, but also led to massacres of local people and the decimation of their culture.
Alternative stream
Kate meets the people who have rebuilt their lives and communities around the cultivation and trade of nutmeg and cloves, takes her place on one of the fastest produciton lines in the world, and discovers how the battle for these two spices led to the beginning of the British Empire in North America.
The Spice Trail episode 2
Katherine Mary Humble is an English television presenter and narrator, mainly working for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programmes. Humble served as President of the RSPB from 2009 until 2013. She is an ambassador for the UK walking charity Living Streets.
Spice trade
The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove and turmeric were known and used in antiquity and traded in the Eastern World. These spices found their way into the Near East before the beginning of the Christian era, with fantastic tales hiding their true sources.
The maritime aspect of the trade was dominated by the Austronesian peoples in Southeast Asia, namely the ancient Indonesian sailors which established routes from Southeast Asia (and later China) to Sri Lanka and India by 1500 BC. These goods were then transported by land towards the Mediterranean and the Greco-Roman world via the incense route and the Roman–India routes by Indian and Persian traders. The Austronesian maritime trade lanes later expanded into the Middle East and eastern Africa by the 1st millennium AD, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar.
Within specific regions, the Kingdom of Axum (5th century BC–AD 11th century) had pioneered the Red Sea route before the 1st century AD. During the first millennium AD, Ethiopians became the maritime trading power of the Red Sea. By this period, trade routes existed from Sri Lanka (the Roman Taprobane) and India, which had acquired maritime technology from early Austronesian contact. By mid-7th century AD, after the rise of Islam, Arab traders started plying these maritime routes and dominated the western Indian Ocean maritime routes.
Arab traders eventually took over conveying goods via the Levant and Venetian merchants to Europe until the rise of the Seljuk Turks in 1090. Later the Ottoman Turks held the route again by 1453 respectively. Overland routes helped the spice trade initially, but maritime trade routes led to tremendous growth in commercial activities to Europe.
