Red Sea Spice Corridor

Timeline

1. c. 1200–1530Jeddah · JeddahSpices, pepper, and cloves from India and Southeast Asia were shipped across the Arabian Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb strait and north along the Red Sea to Jeddah, Suez, and other ports; monsoon patterns and Arab and Indian merchant networks sustained this leg, the corridor's Indian Ocean entry point.
2. 1521–1530Egypt · EgyptAfter the Ottoman conquest of Mamluk Egypt in 1517, the Red Sea corridor was incorporated into the imperial tariff system; in the 1520s Suleiman consolidated control over Egypt, the Hejaz, and Yemen, and spices unloaded at Jeddah were carried by camel caravan across the Sinai or via the Nile–Mediterranean route to Alexandria, while the Ottomans and Venice renewed trade agreements; the corridor still handled a major share of Europe's pepper imports in the 1520s.
3. 1498–1530Indian Ocean · Indian OceanAfter Portugal opened the Cape route in 1498, some spices were diverted via Goa and Lisbon to Europe, but in the 1520s the Red Sea corridor remained competitive thanks to Ottoman–Venetian cooperation, diversified trade at Indian ports, and limited Portuguese shipping capacity; the two channels coexisted between 1521 and 1530, jointly shaping global spice prices and supply.
4. 1521–1530Venice · VeniceSpices from Alexandria were carried by Venetian and Genoese fleets across the eastern Mediterranean to Italian ports, then distributed to the Holy Roman Empire, France, and the Low Countries; despite Portuguese competition and sectarian conflict in the 1520s, Venice continued importing Eastern goods through the Red Sea corridor, serving as the corridor's European hub.