During the first millennium AD, Ethiopians became the maritime trading power of the Red Sea. Within specific regions, the Kingdom of Axum (5th century BC–AD 11th century) had pioneered the Red Sea route before the 1st century AD. The Austronesian maritime trade lanes later expanded into the Middle East and eastern Africa by the 1st millennium AD, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar.
These goods were then transported by land towards the Mediterranean and the Greco-Roman world via the incense route and the Roman–India routes by Indian and Persian traders. The maritime aspect of the trade was dominated by the Austronesian peoples in Southeast Asia namely Majapahit kingdom who established the precursor trade routes from Southeast Asia (and later China) to Sri Lanka and India by at least 1500 BC. These spices found their way into the Near East before the beginning of the Christian era, where the true sources of these spices were withheld by the traders and associated with fantastic tales. 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.
The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. 1453, which spurred the Age of Discovery and European Colonialism. 1090, triggering the Crusades, and by the Ottoman Empire c. The economically important Silk Road (red) and spice trade routes (blue) were blocked by the Seljuk Empire c.