Tag: ancient history
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Phoenicians: Saviours of Civilisation
In Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond asked how much effect geography had on ‘history’s broad pattern’. He concluded that all societies had inventive people but some environments provide more starting materials and favourable conditions. He concentrated on domestication and the axis of the continents. I contend that ports were the favourable conditions that continued…
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The Engine of History: Maritime Trade – Two Mediterranean examples
History often celebrates kings, queens, and wars. Such narratives obscure a quieter force: maritime trade. In the 6th–2nd century BC and 11th–15th century AD, Mediterranean ports, not battlefields, fueled economic and cultural prosperity, laying the foundations for the Roman Empire and Renaissance Europe. Two examples—Carthage’s trade empire and Venice’s commerce with Alexandria—reveal how merchants, not…
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Why Maritime Societies Drove (and Drive) Innovation
My career in maritime trade in London, Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai showed me how pro-active ports are crucibles of innovation. I explore this in a 3-book series, How Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent Shaped the World- Ice Age to mid-8th century, The Millennium Maritime Trade Revolution 700-1700- How Asia Lost Maritime Supremacy and The…
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Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent’s pivotal role in early world history
For nearly four decades I worked in the maritime trade world, in London, Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai. This practical knowledge and my history degree inspired my three-volume series on how maritime trade drove world history. The first is How Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent Shaped the World. Ice Age to Mid 8th Century, in…
Nick Collins 