“In its day, the spice trade was the world’s biggest industry. It established and destroyed empires and helped the Europeans (who were looking for alternate routes to the east) map the globe through their discovery of new continents. What was once tightly controlled by the Arabs for centuries was now available throughout Europe with the establishment of the Ocean Spice Trade route connecting Europe directly to South Asia (India) and South East Asia.”
The spice trade changed how we eat forever but it did so much more. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire cut off Europe from the vital trade routes to the east and access to the most prized commodities of the day. What drove European exploration to get around Africa and to cross the Atlantic? It was to reshape their situation location relative to the economic networks that shaped the emerging global economy. In essence, the spice trade reshaped the fortunes and trajectories of several major world regions.