Concise and accessible, this new edition draws upon recent scholarship in Indian Ocean history to examine how travellers and residents living around the shores of the ocean were connected to one another, as well as how these connections shifted over time.

Long-distance trade and migration enabled and sustained the creation of an interconnected Indian Ocean world for millennia. After the fifteenth century, the ocean’s resources were targeted by European trading companies that used their profits to fund state projects elsewhere in the world, as well as on the shores of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In more recent times, the communities living along the ocean have helped shape global conflicts, while outside actors continue to compete for control over the region. Taking the reader through these important shifts in religion, migration, commerce, labour, and technology, the book treats the Indian Ocean world not as a bounded region, but rather an arena that powers interactions within and beyond the ocean’s shores. The book also offers a discussion of recent historiographical debates and analyses the sources used by scholars in the study of the ocean.

Supported by primary source documents, maps and further reading suggestions, this volume will be invaluable to students of Indian Ocean history and World history, as well as courses examining other regions bordering the ocean including Africa, Asian and the Middle East.

Jane Hooper is a professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, USA. She has written two books on the history of the Indian Ocean, as well as articles about Madagascar, slavery, and the Seychelles.