The Importance of the Spice Islands

The Spice Islands were of monumental importance to the age of exploration. In the age of exploration, the Europeans weathered through numerous dangers and obstacles in hopes of going to strange, new lands and in the process, gather fame and wealth. The Spice Islands were a manifestation of this dream. The people and countries that were fortunate enough to be able to trade in the Spice Islands had control over valuable resources and were almost instantly wealthy. In short, the Spice Islands were what Europeans envisioned when they thought of success in Exploration.

The Spice Islands were named as such because of the abundance of spices that were native and grown in the South East Asian Islands. Spices such as cloves, nutmeg, peppermint and curry powder were important to people all around the world for a variety of reasons. Firstly, back in the time of the Age of Exploration, there were so refrigerators or cooling apparatus’s. The most practical and easy way to save food was to use spices. Spices served the role as natural preservatives to prevent food from rotting. In addition, spices added flavor to food and made eating a more enjoyable experience. Having a lot of spices meant that you were very wealthy, it garnered you respect, which is another reason why spices were so desirable.

Over the history of the Spice Islands, many countries and people have fought for control of its resources and the potential wealth and power that the resources could provide. The first to control the Spice Islands were the Arabs. Portugal, who was competing with Spain to get to India first, then took over the Spice Islands from the Arabs. Portugal became very wealthy, but they did not devote enough of their wealth into their military. As a result, the Dutch were able to defeat the Portuguese and take control of the Spice Islands. Chinese people also traded in the Spice Islands; however they remained fairly impartial in the wars and battles for control of the Spice Islands.

Over the course of The Age of Exploration, many people and countries were impacted in a heavy way by the Spice Islands. The countries of Portugal and the Netherlands were relatively small and powerless before they had access to the Spice Islands. However, afterwards they became wealthy and powerful. The Portuguese and Dutch did not become massively rich without altering the market and supply of Spices. In order to increase the price of Cloves, the Europeans cut down many clove trees to prevent them from being common and to increase the price. As supply goes, down the price goes up. The explorers weren’t so heartless as to not reimburse to natives for the lost, though. One especially huge influence on the modern world is the birth of stock. In the early 1600’s, The Dutch East India Company allowed people to invest in its business ventures in the form a share of stock. The stock market is a huge part of the world’s economic condition in the present day.

The Spice Islands and the spice trade was a large part of what made The Age of Exploration a success and it epitomized the dreams that explorers had for new places and strange lands. The

spices helped many preserve their food, leading to a decrease in starvation and increase in flavor of food. The Spice Islands were an inspiration to many hopeful explorers looking for money and a higher social position in society. However, to say that the Spice Islands were just a place where one could acquire great wealth would be an understatement to its importance. The Spice Islands were a place of wealth, fame and dreams.