Kerala Maritime Trade Ports

Timeline

1. 100–700Malabar Coast · KeralaThe Malabar Coast has long been a major producing region and export port for spices such as black pepper, transshipped by Arab and Persian merchants to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, becoming a key node linking the Indian Ocean with the West Asia–Europe trade chain.
2. 1421–1430Calicut · KeralaIn the early 15th century the Zamorin (ruler of Calicut) controlled the Malabar pepper trade; Calicut's port gathered Arab, Gujarati, and Bengali merchants, exporting pepper, ginger, cotton cloth, and wootz steel ingots, and importing horses, textiles, and luxury goods, with port tariffs and a thriving market economy.
3. 1498Calicut · KeralaIn 1498 Vasco da Gama's fleet reached Calicut, marking the arrival of a European sea route directly to Malabar, breaking the Arab middlemen's monopoly and opening Portuguese and subsequent European powers' colonial competition on the Malabar Coast.
4. 1500–1700Cochin · KeralaThe Portuguese, Dutch, and British successively used Cochin, Cannanore, and other ports as bases, forming a multi-port competitive pattern on the Malabar Coast, where traditional Arab merchant networks coexisted with European company trade, profoundly transforming spice trade routes and the port landscape.