Category: Geography

The Monsoon Trade System: An Indian Ocean Network

Sometime before 100 B.C., Greek sailors coming from Egypt discovered a shortcut to India.  Much easier and more direct than the arduous overland route, or than hugging the deserted coastlines of Arabia and Persia for 5,000 miles, this route took only weeks to travel.  Sailing straight out into the open waters of the Arabian Sea during the late spring, […]

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Great Eurasian Steppe

The Great Eurasian Steppe: An Engine of History

The biggest single driver of events in European and Asian history has been the migration of peoples across the open grasslands of northern Eurasia. In the millennia between the domestication of the horse and the age of gunpowder, nomads ranged across this Great Eurasian Steppe which spanned the two continents, bringing trade and war by turns. The southern […]

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