Spice trade
Videos
Page
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.
European access to the economically important Silk Road (red) and spice trade routes (blue) was blocked by the Seljuk Empire c. 1090, causing the Crusades, and by the Ottoman Empire c. 1453, which spurred the Age of Discovery and European colonialism.
The spice trade from India attracted the attention of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and subsequently the Roman empire.
Spice Bazaar used for the spice trade during the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul
Image of Calicut, India from Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg's atlas Civitates orbis terrarum, 1572.
Cinnamon
Videos
Page
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfast cereals, snack foods, bagels, teas, hot chocolate and traditional foods. The aroma and flavour of cinnamon derive from its essential oil and principal component, cinnamaldehyde, as well as numerous other constituents including eugenol.
Dried bark strips, bark powder and flowers of the small tree Cinnamomum verum
Cinnamomum verum, from Koehler's Medicinal-Plants (1887)
Close-up view of raw cinnamon bark
Cinnamon tree