Angela Schottenhammer is Professor of Non-European History at the University of Salzburg, Austria, and Research Director and Adjunct Professor at the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University, Canada.

Considers the historical Indian Ocean World as an emerging "global economy," tracing close interrelationships between commercial exchanges, the spread of knowledge, human movement, and migration

Covers themes such as maritime trading networks, sea routes, nautical archaeology, official and contraband trade, and human mobility

Appeals to scholars of Indian Ocean studies, maritime history, economic history, Chinese studies, archaeology, historical geography, and the history of science and technology

1. Introduction.- I. Routes and Connections.- 2. China's Increasing Integration into the Indian Ocean World until Song ¿ Times: Sea Routes, Connections, Trades.- 3. The Peak of China's Long-Distance Maritime Connections with Western Asia during the Mongol Period: Comparison with the Pre-Mongol and Post-Mongol Periods.- 4. "He Did Not Kiss the Earth between His Hands": Arabic Sources on the Arrivals of the Zheng He Fleet in Aden and Mecca (1419-1432).- II. Commercial Crossroads and New Perspectives on Archaeological Evidence.- 5. Protohistoric and Early Historic Exchange in the Eastern Indian Ocean: A Re-evaluation of Current Paradigms.- 6. Shipwrecks in Southeast Asia: China's Maritime Trade and the Emerging Role of Arab Merchants in Late First Millennium Indian Ocean Exchange.- 7. Cargoes Human and Otherwise: Chinese Commerce in East African Goods during the Middle Period.- 8. Indic Mercantile Networks and the Indian Ocean World: A Millennial Overview (c. 500-1500 CE).- III. Official and Contraband Trade in the Nineteenth Century.- 9. Opium in the Indian Ocean Trade in the Early Modern Period: A Commodity of Both Official and Contraband Exchange.- 10. Transfer of Small Arms from Great Britain to Iran (Persia) in the Nineteenth Century.- 11. German Merchants in the Indian Ocean World: From Early Modern Paralysis to Modern Animation.- IV. Diasporas, Trade, and Human Mobility.- 12. Han Chinese Representations of South Sea Merchants in Song China.- 13. Port Cities in the Gulf and the Red Sea during the Long Eighteenth Century (c. 1720-c. 1840): General Characteristics and Some Comparisons with Southeast Asia.