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By Bram Hubbell
Bridging oceans
We grow up thinking that history happens on land. We’re taught that societies are land-based and that oceans are borders and barriers. For example, in “America the Beautiful,” we sing about the United States extending “from sea to shining sea.” On the State Department’s Office of the Historian website, they argue that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans acted as “barriers” in the nineteenth century. They claim that oceans “protected” the United States from “Old World conflicts.” But for much of human history, oceans and seas were not the edges of societies or barriers; they acted as bridges, connecting the people who lived around large bodies of water. When we look at the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, we can see how throughout history, these bodies of water connected the communities around them.
Connections across the Indian Ocean
When we start thinking of oceans as bridges rather than barriers, we can help students focus on how these great bodies of water facilitated exchange across vast distances. A good starting point is to explore some of the longest exchanges across the Indian Ocean—those linking the Swahili Coast of East Africa with China.
I’ve found that visual evidence is especially helpful to illustrate the cultural linkages forged across oceanic bridges. For example, in the fifteenth century, Chinese porcelain became a status symbol for wealthy Swahili elites. Some of these elites even used Chinese porcelain to decorate their tombs. In the Kunduchi ruins in Tanzania, there are pillar tombs featuring Ming dynasty porcelain. Another example are the fifteenth-century voyages of the Chinese Admiral Zheng He, who led seven voyages across the Indian Ocean to show off China’s power and expand its tribute system. Asian and African rulers sent gifts back to the Chinese courts to garner the favor of the distant emperor. One of the most well-known offerings was a gift of a giraffe. The giraffe was sent as tribute from Malindi (present-day Kenya) and was given to Zheng He by the ruler of Bengal. Many Chinese artists painted the giraffe in the Chinese courts.
Left: Pillar tomb in Tanzania, decorated with Ming porcelain. By Mangapwani, CC BY-SA 4.0. Right: A giraffe, sent back with Zheng He to the Ming court. Public domain.
Connections across the Pacific Ocean
The Indian Ocean wasn’t unique. Similar connections also developed across the Pacific Ocean in the sixteenth century. In world history, we often teach about the exchange of silver from the Americas for Asian goods via the Manila galleons, but there were also many Asians who crossed the Pacific. In The First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History, Diego Javier Luis tells the history of enslaved Asians in the Americas. Most of them were captured and enslaved around the Indian Ocean before being sent to Manila. The majority remained in colonial Mexico, but some were sent to colonial Peru.
One of the most famous enslaved Asians was Catarina de San Juan, who died in 1688 in Puebla, Mexico. Born “Mira,” in southern India, she was enslaved by Portuguese sailors and brought to Cochin, India, where she was baptized and converted to Christianity. She was then sold to another slaver in Manila before being brought across the Pacific Ocean. The captain of the ship eventually freed Catarina. She ended up in Puebla, Mexico, where she lived a life of poverty and intense devotion. Alonso Ramos, a Catholic priest, recorded her life history after she died.
We know more about Catarina de San Juan than most enslaved Asians in the Americas. Her story is just one example of the approximately 10,000 enslaved Asians who Spanish ships forcibly transferred across the Pacific between the 1570s and the late 1600s. As the transatlantic slave trade intensified in the late 1600s, the transpacific slave trade declined.
The development of a single ocean network
Before 1800, the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean networks were only loosely connected. The links within each system were stronger than the links between them. During the second half of the nineteenth century, new technology contributed to tighter links across all the world’s oceans. Steamships, which didn’t rely on changing seasonal winds, made it easier for people to travel over vast distances. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 connected the Indian Ocean to the Northern Atlantic via the Red and Mediterranean Seas. The Panama Canal, completed in 1914, linked the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Steamship routes of the world map. By American Express Company, NKC 1.0.
People continued to migrate and spread their cultures across the oceans. One example is the Indian community in Trinidad. Thousands of Indians, many from southern coastal communities India, migrated to Caribbean islands as indentured servants. They often worked on sugar plantations. Although some returned home after completing their contracts, many stayed and spread Indian traditions. Today, Trinidadian food is full of Indian spices. Many people there eat roti and celebrate Diwali.
Poster celebrating Diwali in Trinidad. Courtesy and © Visit Trinidad.
Challenging how students see the world
It’s likely many of your students don’t know how much they’ve been conditioned to see oceans as borders. I use two maps to help students rethink their perspectives on oceans. The first map is the Spilhaus Projection, developed by Athelstan Spilhaus in the second half of the twentieth century.
I like to show students this map without any explanation, and then ask them to tell me what they’re looking at. Students often notice Africa first. As a group, they eventually figure out they’re looking at the world from the perspective of Antarctica. In the Spilhaus Projection, the continents are around the edges of the map, and students can see—some for the first time—that the world’s oceans are connected.
The Spilhaus Projection. Sometimes called the fish-eye’s view of the world. Courtesy and © Šavrič, Burrows, Kennedy and ArcGIS StoryMaps.
The second map I show them is Sabine Réthoré’s “Mediterranean Without Borders.” This map can easily be adapted to any language, but I prefer to use the Arabic version, as it’s the language used by the most people around the Mediterranean today.
Again, I ask the students to try to figure out what they’re looking at. We are conditioned to think of the Mediterranean with Europe on top. Réthoré’s perspective encourages students to see how narrow the Mediterranean Sea is. People around the Mediterranean have historically enjoyed a shared culture. We can still see those connections in many Mediterranean cuisines.
“Mediterranean Without Borders” map. Courtesy and © Sabine Réthoré, 2011.
Conclusion
Oceans have been critical to the development of the modern world. Before the invention of airplanes and commercial jets, boats connected people across vast distances and allowed for cultural exchange. Whether they were Portuguese caravels, Chinese junks, Arab dhows, or steamships, they all relied on the vast oceans that have connected communities around the world for millennia.
Even today, we can see the importance of oceans. I’m writing this post in Kochi, India. On the southern shore of the entrance to the city’s harbor are Chinese fishing nets. The exact origin of these nets is unclear, but they are similar to nets used along the coasts of southern China. Some locals claim the nets originated with Zheng He’s voyages. Others suggest that the Portuguese brought them from Macau in the sixteenth century. In either case, the nets are a reminder of an earlier era of oceanic connections. Across the harbor on the northern shore is Vallarpadam Terminal, the modernized port facilities in Kochi Harbor. It’s one of the largest ports in India. The juxtaposition of centuries’-old Chinese fishing nets and a container terminal remind us that oceans have long been critical to connecting communities across vast distance.
Fishing nets, Kochi, India. Courtesy and © the author.
For free classroom resources on oceanic history, check out our lesson collection! You’ll find tons of our best articles, videos, activities, and lesson plans you can use with your students.
About the Author
Bram Hubbell writes about teaching world history for the newsletter Liberating Narratives. He focuses on helping teachers decolonize the teaching of world history by questioning Eurocentric narratives and centering African, Asian, Indigenous, and Latinx voices in the classroom. He currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, but can often be found traveling all over Afro-Eurasia. He has visited more than 70 countries. Bram's travels inform his writing and approach to teaching. For over 20 years, he lived in New York City and taught world history at Friends Seminary. He also served on the AP® World History curriculum and test development committees for many years and regularly participated in the AP World History reading.
