Indian Ocean Connections

Long before European contact with the Americas forged transoceanic networks and connections in the Atlantic and Pacific, the Indian Ocean served as a maritime space that connected the many states, economies, and communities of its vast basin stretching from East Africa to Southeast Asia. In this multi-part episode, we follow this maritime space into the modern period, exploring the endurance of Indian Ocean connections. We discuss how commerce and politics fueled the expansion of the Ottoman diplomatic presence in South Asia, and we consider how lingering connections between East Africa and the Indian Ocean world forged by dhow traffic reveal both continuities and transformations in the history of economy, mobility, and empire along the coasts today.